Medieval sexuality : a casebook / edited by April Harper and Caroline Proctor.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Harper, April.

Proctor, Caroline.

Series:

Medieval casebooks

Routledge medieval casebooks

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sex customs--History--To 1500.

Sex customs.

History.

Physical Description:

x, 230 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : Routledge, 2008.

Summary:

Medieval Sexuality: A Casebook is a fascinating collection featuring both new and established experts in the field. The volume includes 11 original essays by Ross Balzaretti, Philip Crispin, Dominic Janes, Hugh Kennedy, A. Lynn Martin, Kim M. Phillips, Samantha J. E. Riches, Joyce E. Salisbury, David Santiuste, and the volume editors, April Harper and Caroline Proctor. The authors explore a variety of sources, contributing work on a diverse range of topics including: sources for sexuality in Late Lombard Italy; the problematic reception of early medieval penitentials by modern readers; sexuality as experienced by the desert fathers and mothers; connections between saints, monsters, and sexuality in medieval art and hagiography; the relationship between food, seduction, and adultery in the fabliaux; sex, alcohol, and the late medieval stereotype of the unruly woman; sex as a medical and moral concern in medieval regimens of health; ideas of sexuality in political discourse; sex and scandal in festive drama; debates on sexual orientation in Arabic court literature; and pre-colonial descriptions of sexuality in the Ear East. The volume concludes with a useful selection of further reading.

Contents:

Part 1 Early Medieval Histories

1 Sexuality in Late Lombard Italy, c.700-c.800 AD / Ross Balzaretti 7

2 Sex and Text: The Afterlife of Medieval Penance in Britain and Ireland / Dominic Janes 32

Part 2 Saintly Sexualities

3 When Sex Stopped Being a Social Disease: Sex and the Desert Fathers and Mothers / Joyce E. Salisbury 47

4 Virtue and Violence: Saints, Monsters and Sexuality in Medieval Culture / Samantha J. E. Riches 59

Part 3 Consuming Passions

5 "The Food of Love": Illicit Feasting, Food Imagery and Adultery in Old French Literature / April Harper 81

6 The Role of Drinking in the Male Construction of Unruly Women / A. Lynn Martin 98

7 Between Medicine and Morals: Sex in the Regimens of Maino de Maineri / Caroline Proctor 113

Part 4 Real and Imaginary Kingdoms

8 "Puttyng Downe and Rebuking of Vices": Richard III and the Proclamation for the Reform of Morals / David Santiuste 135

9 Scandal, Malice and the Kingdom of the Bazoche / Philip Crispin 154

Part 5 To the East

10 Al-Jahiz and the Construction of Homosexuality at the Abbasid Court / Hugh Kennedy 175

11 "They Do Not Know the Use of Men": The Absence of Sodomy in Medieval Accounts of the Far East / Kim M. Phillips 189.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [209]-216) and index.

ISBN:

9780415978316

0415978319

OCLC:

124538045