Apud Indos ver est perpetuum. The Far East during the Middle Ages: a revision of Jacques Le Goff’s oneiric horizon

Abstract

According to Jacques Le Goff († 2014), the men of the Middle Ages conceived the Far East as a place where the laws of nature were openly flouted by beings of extravagant figure, societies free of illness, paradises of luxury and voluptuousness. These faraway lands appeared as a place to house all the dreams and fantasies of the medieval west, which Le Goff called the “oneiric horizon”. This article’s purposes are to revisit this concept and to supplement with regard to its construction from the basis of the literary tradition and medieval mentality, formulate some possible criticism and analyze its application to other areas of the globe such as they were conceived by Western people.