Rota fortune continue volvitur: The Wheel of Fortune in Medieval Preaching

The article investigates the ways medieval preachers presented and discussed the Wheel of Fortune as well as the interplay between their sermons and the images of this symbol that were displayed in public spaces. Between the twelfth and the fifteenth century, when the rota fortunae was a recurrent element in the visualscape, sermons and visual discourses put an effort into guiding the gaze, the reflections, and even the emotions of the observers before this symbolic wheel. Images and sermons aimed to shape religious and moral ideas about (social) instability: the dynamic of rising and, even more, the looming danger of a sudden downfall. Tracing and analysing the use of the Wheel of Fortune in preaching, therefore, allows us to better understand the way this symbol was popularised and the multiple meanings it acquired in the public sphere. First and foremost, the rota fortunae was used to develop a socio-religious discourse on the fickleness of the human condition and power, the moral and social reasons of this instability, the role of providence in this world and divine justice in the afterlife. In shimmering forms, therefore, the Wheel of Fortune was a discourse that was as much religious as political.