Medieval Sexuality A Casebook

Medieval Sexuality: A Casebook examines the history of medieval sexuality. The volume begins with an introductory essay by the volume editors, April Harper and Carolyn Proctor, and includes 11 original essays by Adelina Angusheva, Ross Balzaretti, Phillip Crispin, Dominic Janes, Hugh Kennedy, Kim Phillips, Sam Riches, Joyce E. Salisbury, David Santiuste, and Ruth Semple. The contributors utilize a variety of literary and philosophical texts, legal documents, and medical treatises to explore a broad range of topics, such as medieval penitentials, womena (TM)s health, sex as a remedy for a oelove-sickness, a ? images of sexuality in medieval art, sex and political scandal, sex and travel, and homosexuality.

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 Far East. The volume concludes with a useful selection of further reading.

Table of Contents Editors’ Introduction Contributors Acknowledgements Early Medieval Histories 1. Ross Balzaretti "Sexuality in late Lombard Italy, c.700-800 AD"2. Dominic Janes "Dangerous deeds and polluting texts: the moral readings and modern reception of the insular penitentials"Saintly Sexualities 3. Joyce E. Salisbury "When Sex Stopped Being a Social Disease: Sex and the Desert Fathers and Mothers"4. Samantha J.E. Riches "Virtue and violence: saints, monsters and sexuality in medieval culture" Consuming Passions5. April Harper "The food of love: illicit feasting, food imagery and adultery in Old French Literature" 6. A. Lynn Martin "The Role of Drinking in the Male Construction of Unruly Women" 7. Caroline Proctor "Between Medicine and Morals: sex in the regimens of Maino de Maineri" Real and Imaginary Kingdoms 8. David Santiuste " ‘Puttyng downe and rebuking of Vices’: Richard III and the Proclamation for the Reform of Morals" 9. Philip Crispin "Scandal, Malice and the Kingdom of the Bazoche" To the East 10. Hugh Kennedy "Al-Jahiz and the Construction of Homosexuality at the Abbasid Court" 11. Kim M. Phillips " ‘They do not know the use of men’: The Absence of Sodomy in Medieval Accounts of the Far East" Further Reading Index

April Harper is Assistant Professor of History at the State University of New York, College at Oneonta. Caroline Proctor is a Teaching Fellow and Research Assistant in the Centre for the History of Medicine, the Department of History, University of Warwick.