Table Of ContentRepresenting Medieval Genders
and Sexualities in Europe
Construction, Transformation,
and Subversion, 600–1530
Edited by
Elizabeth L’Estrange and Alison More
An Ashgate Book
representing medieval genders and sexualities in europe
Transcending both academic disciplines and traditional categories of
analysis, this collection illustrates the ways genders and sexualities could be
constructed, subverted and transformed. Focusing on areas such as literature,
hagiography, history, and art history, from the Anglo-Saxon period to the
early sixteenth century, the contributors examine the ways men and women
lived, negotiated, and challenged prevailing conceptions of gender and
sexual identity. In particular, their papers explore textual constructions and
transformations of religious and secular masculinities and femininities; visual
subversions of gender roles; gender and the exercise of power; and the role
sexuality plays in the creation of gender identity. The methodologies which
are used in this volume are relevant both to specialists of the Middle Ages and
early modern periods, and to scholars working more broadly in fields that
draw on contemporary gender studies.
Elizabeth L’Estrange is lecturer in the History of Art
at the University of Birmingham, UK.
Alison More is a researcher in the Department of History
at Radboud University in the Netherlands.
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Representing Medieval
Genders and Sexualities
in Europe
Construction, Transformation,
and Subversion, 600–1530
Edited by Elizabeth L’Estrange and Alison More
First published 2011 by Ashgate Publishing
Published 2016 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright © 2011 The editors and contributors
Elizabeth L’Estrange and Alison More have asserted their right under the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the editors of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any
form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used
only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Representing medieval genders and sexualities in Europe :
construction, transformation, and subversion, 600-1530.
1. Sex role--Europe--History--To 1500. 2. Sex role--
Religious aspects--Christianity. 3. Masculinity--
Religious aspects--Christianity. 4. Masculinity--Europe--
History--To 1500. 5. Women--Europe--History--Middle
Ages, 500-1500. 6. Sex role in literature--History--To
1500. 7. Sex role in art--History--To 1500. 8. Sex--
Europe--History--To 1500.
I. L’Estrange, Elizabeth. II. More, Alison.
305.3’094’0902-dc22
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Representing medieval genders and sexualities in Europe : construction, transformation,
and subversion, 600-1530 / edited by Elizabeth L’Estrange, Alison More.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4094-0987-8 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Gender identity--Europe--History--To 1500. 2. Sex customs--Europe--History--
To 1500. 3. Gender identity--Europe--History--To 1500--Sources. 4. Sex customs--
Europe--History--To 1500--Sources. 5. Europe--Social life and customs. 6. Europe--
Social conditions--To 1492. 7. Europe--Intellectual life. 8. Europe--Religious life and
customs. 9. Art and society--Europe--History--To 1500. 10. Popular culture--Europe--
History--To 1500. I. L’Estrange, Elizabeth. II. More, Alison, 1975-
HQ14.R47 2011
305.304’0902--dc22
2011001429
ISBN 9781409409878 (hbk)
ISBN 9781315605470 (ebk)
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Notes on Contributors ix
List of Abbreviations xiii
Preface and Acknowledgements xv
1 Representing Medieval Genders and Sexualities in Europe:
Construction, Transformation, and Subversion, 600–1530 1
Elizabeth L’Estrange and Alison More
2 ‘What, after all, is a male virgin?’ Multiple Performances
of Male Virginity in Anglo-Saxon Saints’ Lives 15
Cassandra Rhodes
3 Convergence, Conversion, and Transformation: Gender and
Sanctity in Thirteenth-Century Liège 33
Alison More
4 Constructing Political Rule, Transforming Gender Scripts:
Revisiting the Thirteenth-Century Rule of Joan and Margaret,
Countesses of Flanders 49
Francesca Canadé Sautman
5 Violence on Vellum: St Margaret’s Transgressive Body
and its Audience 67
Jennifer Borland
6 ‘Pourquoy appellerions nous ces choses differentes, qu’une
heure, un moment, un mouvement peuvent rendre du tout
semblables?’: Representing Gender Identity in the Late Medieval
French Querelle des femmes 89
Helen Swift
vi representing medieval genders and sexualities in europe
7 Constructing Female Sanctity in Late Medieval Naples:
The Funerary Monument of Queen Sancia of Majorca 107
Aislinn Loconte
8 Deschi da parto and Topsy-Turvy Gender Relations in
Fifteenth-Century Italian Households 127
Elizabeth L’Estrange
9 Fashioning Female Humanist Scholarship:
Self-representation in Laura Cereta’s Letters 145
Jennifer Cavalli
10 Mightier than the Sword: Reading, Writing and Noble
Masculinity in the Early Sixteenth Century 161
Fiona S. Dunlop
Bibliography 173
Index 197
List of Illustrations
5 Violence on Vellum: St Margaret’s (twentieth-century copy of lost original).
Transgressive Body and its Audience Photo credit: Rheinisches Bildarchiv,
Cologne
5.1 The Passion of St Margaret, fol.
63v–64r Bayerische Staatsbibliothek 5.8 Pamplona Bible martyrology, fol.
Clm. 1133, twelfth century. Photo credit: 247v (Agatha cycle, detail) Augsburg
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Cod. I.2.4°15, 1199–1212. Photo credit:
Augsburg, University Library
5.2 The Passion of St Margaret, fol.
66v–67r Bayerische Staatsbibliothek
Clm. 1133, twelfth century. Photo credit: 7 Constructing Female Sanctity in
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Late Medieval Naples: The Funerary
Monument of Queen Sancia of Majorca
5.3 The Passion of St Margaret, fol.
67v–68r Bayerische Staatsbibliothek 7.1 Tomb of Sancia of Majorca in Santa
Clm. 1133, twelfth century. Photo credit: Croce di Palazzo, Naples. Vatican City,
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. Lat.
9840, f. 59r
5.4 The Passion of St Margaret, fol.
69v–70r Bayerische Staatsbibliothek 7.2 Tomb of Sancia of Majorca in Santa
Clm. 1133, twelfth century. Photo credit: Croce di Palazzo, Naples. Vatican City,
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. Lat.
9840, f. 58v
5.5 Christ Trampling Beasts, Amiens
Cathedral, thirteenth century. Photo 7.3 Simone Martini, St Louis of Toulouse
credit: Foto Marburg/Art Resource, NY Crowning Robert of Anjou, 1317, Museo
Nazionale di Capodimonte. Image
5.6 Liber Scivias, fol. 139r, Victory (detail), courtesy of Luciano Pedicini
Vision III.3 Eibingen, c. 1160–75 (twentieth-
century copy of lost original). Photo 7.4 Tino di Camaino, Madonna and
credit: Rheinisches Bildarchiv, Cologne Child with Queen Sancia, Saints and
Angels, c. 1335, Samuel H. Kress
5.7 Liber Scivias, fol.192r, Fortitude Collection, National Gallery of Art,
(detail), Vision III.9 Eibingen, c. 1160–75 Washington
viii representing medieval genders and sexualities in europe
7.5 Anonymous Pistoian painter, Chastity c. 1450–60, North Carolina
Scenes from the Life of Saint Irene, 1325–30. Museum of Art, Raleigh, Gift of the
Private collection. Image courtesy of Samuel H. Kress Foundation © Raleigh,
Sotheby’s Inc., New York © 2010 North Carolina Museum of Art
8.5 Workshop of Apollonio di
8 Deschi da parto and Topsy-Turvy
Giovanni, Desco da parto, Small boys
Gender Relations in Fifteenth-Century
playing with poppy seeds, c. 1450–60,
Italian Households
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh,
Gift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation
8.1 Desco da parto, Confinement
© Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of
scene, Florence, mid-fifteenth century,
Art (reverse of fig. 8.4)
Galleria Franchetti, Ca’ d’Oro, Venice
© Cameraphoto arte, Venice
8.6 Paolo Ucello, Interior of a marriage
chest (cassone), The Battle of Greeks
8.2 Desco da parto, Florence, Two boys
and Amazons before the Walls of
making music (reverse of fig. 8.1), mid-
Troy; Allegories of Faith and Justice;
fifteenth century, Galleria Franchetti, Ca’
and Reclining Nude (detail), © Yale
d’Oro © Cameraphoto arte, Venice
University Art Gallery, New Haven,
8.3 Workshop of Apollonio di Gallery Gift of the Associates in Fine
Giovanni, Desco da parto, Triumph of Love, Arts
c. 1460, Victoria and Albert Museum,
8.7 Desco da parto, Triumph of Love,
published by kind permission of the
fifteenth century, Victoria and Albert
Board of Trustees of the V&A © V&A
Museum, published by kind permission
Images/Victoria and Albert Museum
of the Board of Trustees of the V&A
8.4 Workshop of Apollonio di © V&A Images/Victoria and Albert
Giovanni, Desco da parto, Triumph of Museum
