Table Of ContentTHE NEW MIDDLE AGES
BONNIE WHEELER, Series Editor
The New Middle Ages is a series dedicated to pluridisciplinary studies of medieval cultures, with
particular emphasis on recuperating women’s history and on feminist and gender analyses.
This peer-r eviewed series includes both scholarly monographs and essay collections.
PUBLISHED BY PALGRAVE:
Women in the Medieval Islamic World: Power, Crossing the Bridge: Comparative Essays on
Patronage, and Piety Medieval European and Heian Japanese Women
edited by Gavin R. G. Hambly Writers
edited by Barbara Stevenson and
The Ethics of Nature in the Middle Ages: On
Cynthia Ho
Boccaccio’s Poetaphysics
by Gregory B. Stone Engaging Words: The Culture of Reading in the
Later Middle Ages
Presence and Presentation: Women in the Chinese
by Laurel Amtower
Literati Tradition
edited by Sherry J. Mou Robes and Honor: The Medieval World of
Investiture
The Lost Love Letters of Heloise and Abelard:
edited by Stewart Gordon
Perceptions of Dialogue in Twelfth-Century
France Representing Rape in Medieval and Early
by Constant J. Mews Modern Literature
edited by Elizabeth Robertson and
Understanding Scholastic Thought Christine M. Rose
with Foucault
Same Sex Love and Desire among Women in the
by Philipp W. Rosemann
Middle Ages
For Her Good Estate: The Life of Elizabeth de edited by Francesca Canadé Sautman and
Burgh Pamela Sheingorn
by Frances A. Underhill
Sight and Embodiment in the Middle Ages:
Constructions of Widowhood and Virginity in the Ocular Desires
Middle Ages by Suzannah Biernoff
edited by Cindy L. Carlson and Angela Listen, Daughter: The Speculum Virginum and
Jane Weisl the Formation of Religious Women in the Middle
Ages
Motherhood and Mothering in Anglo-Saxon
edited by Constant J. Mews
England
by Mary Dockray-Miller Science, the Singular, and the Question of
Theology
Listening to Heloise: The Voice of a Twelfth-
by Richard A. Lee, Jr.
Century Woman
edited by Bonnie Wheeler Gender in Debate from the Early Middle Ages to
the Renaissance
The Postcolonial Middle Ages
edited by Thelma S. Fenster and Clare A.
edited by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen Lees
Chaucer’s Pardoner and Gender Theory: Bodies Malory’s Morte D’Arthur: Remaking
of Discourse Arthurian Tradition
by Robert S. Sturges by Catherine Batt
The Vernacular Spirit: Essays on Medieval The Texture of Society: Medieval Women in the
Religious Literature Southern Low Countries
edited by Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski, edited by Ellen E. Kittell and Mary
Duncan Robertson, and Nancy Warren A. Suydam
Popular Piety and Art in the Late Middle Ages: Charlemagne’s Mustache: And Other Cultural
Image Worship and Idolatry in England Clusters of a Dark Age
1350–1500 by Paul Edward Dutton
by Kathleen Kamerick
Troubled Vision: Gender, Sexuality, and Sight in
Absent Narratives, Manuscript Textuality, and Medieval Text and Image
Literary Structure in Late Medieval England edited by Emma Campbell and Robert
by Elizabeth Scala Mills
Creating Community with Food and Drink in Queering Medieval Genres
Merovingian Gaul by Tison Pugh
by Bonnie Effros
Sacred Place in Early Medieval Neoplatonism
Representations of Early Byzantine Empresses: by L. Michael Harrington
Image and Empire
The Middle Ages at Work
by Anne McClanan
edited by Kellie Robertson and
Encountering Medieval Textiles and Dress: Michael Uebel
Objects, Texts, Images
Chaucer’s Jobs
edited by Désirée G. Koslin and Janet
by David R. Carlson
Snyder
Medievalism and Orientalism: Three Essays on
Eleanor of Aquitaine: Lord and Lady
Literature, Architecture and Cultural Identity
edited by Bonnie Wheeler and John
by John M. Ganim
Carmi Parsons
Queer Love in the Middle Ages
Isabel La Católica, Queen of Castile: Critical
by Anna Kłosowska
Essays
edited by David A. Boruchoff Performing Women in the Middle Ages: Sex,
Gender, and the Iberian Lyric
Homoeroticism and Chivalry: Discourses of Male
by Denise K. Filios
Same-Sex Desire in the Fourteenth Century
by Richard E. Zeikowitz Necessary Conjunctions: The Social Self in
Medieval England
Portraits of Medieval Women: Family, Marriage, by David Gary Shaw
and Politics in England 1225–1350
Visual Culture and the German Middle Ages
by Linda E. Mitchell
edited by Kathryn Starkey and Horst
Eloquent Virgins: From Thecla to Joan of Arc Wenzel
by Maud Burnett McInerney
Medieval Paradigms: Essays in Honor of Jeremy
The Persistence of Medievalism: Narrative duQuesnay Adams, Volumes 1 and 2
Adventures in Contemporary Culture edited by Stephanie Hayes-Healy
by Angela Jane Weisl
False Fables and Exemplary Truth in Later
Capetian Women Middle English Literature
edited by Kathleen D. Nolan by Elizabeth Allen
Joan of Arc and Spirituality Ecstatic Transformation: On the Uses of Alterity
edited by Ann W. Astell and Bonnie in the Middle Ages
Wheeler by Michael Uebel
Sacred and Secular in Medieval and Early Mindful Spirit in Late Medieval Literature:
Modern Cultures: New Essays Essays in Honor of Elizabeth D. Kirk
edited by Lawrence Besserman edited by Bonnie Wheeler
Tolkien’s Modern Middle Ages Medieval Fabrications: Dress, Textiles, Clothwork,
edited by Jane Chance and Alfred and Other Cultural Imaginings
K. Siewers edited by E. Jane Burns
Representing Righteous Heathens in Late Was the Bayeux Tapestry Made in France?: The
Medieval England Case for St. Florent of Saumur
by Frank Grady by George Beech
Byzantine Dress: Representations of Secular Women, Power, and Religious Patronage in the
Dress in Eighth- to Twelfth-Century Painting Middle Ages
by Jennifer L. Ball by Erin L. Jordan
The Laborer’s Two Bodies: Labor and the Hybridity, Identity, and Monstrosity in Medieval
“Work” of the Text in Medieval Britain, Britain: On Difficult Middles
1350–1500 by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen
by Kellie Robertson
Medieval Go-betweens and Chaucer’s
The Dogaressa of Venice, 1250–1500: Wife Pandarus
and Icon by Gretchen Mieszkowski
by Holly S. Hurlburt
The Surgeon in Medieval English Literature
Logic, Theology, and Poetry in Boethius, by Jeremy J. Citrome
Abelard, and Alan of Lille: Words in the
Temporal Circumstances: Form and History in
Absence of Things
the Canterbury Tales
by Eileen C. Sweeney
by Lee Patterson
The Theology of Work: Peter Damian and the Erotic Discourse and Early English Religious
Medieval Religious Renewal Movement Writing
by Patricia Ranft by Lara Farina
On the Purification of Women: Churching in Odd Bodies and Visible Ends in Medieval
Northern France, 1100–1500 Literature
by Paula M. Rieder by Sachi Shimomura
Writers of the Reign of Henry II: Twelve On Farting: Language and Laughter in the
Essays Middle Ages
edited by Ruth Kennedy and Simon by Valerie Allen
Meecham-Jones
Women and Medieval Epic: Gender, Genre, and
Lonesome Words: The Vocal Poetics of the Old the Limits of Epic Masculinity
English Lament and the African-American edited by Sara S. Poor and Jana
Blues Song K. Schulman
by M.G. McGeachy
Race, Class, and Gender in “Medieval”
Performing Piety: Musical Culture in Medieval Cinema
English Nunneries edited by Lynn T. Ramey and
by Anne Bagnell Yardley Tison Pugh
The Flight from Desire: Augustine and Ovid to Allegory and Sexual Ethics in the High Middle
Chaucer Ages
by Robert R. Edwards by Noah D. Guynn
England and Iberia in the Middle Ages, Hildegard of Bingen’s Unknown Language: An
12th–15th Century: Cultural, Literary, and Edition, Translation, and Discussion
Political Exchanges by Sarah L. Higley
edited by María Bullón-Fernández
Medieval Romance and the Construction of
The Medieval Chastity Belt: A Myth-Making Heterosexuality
Process by Louise M. Sylvester
by Albrecht Classen
Communal Discord, Child Abduction, and Rape
Claustrophilia: The Erotics of Enclosure in in the Later Middle Ages
Medieval Literature by Jeremy Goldberg
by Cary Howie
Lydgate Matters: Poetry and Material Culture in
Cannibalism in High Medieval English the Fifteenth Century
Literature edited by Lisa H. Cooper and Andrea
by Heather Blurton Denny-Brown
The Drama of Masculinity and Medieval Sexuality and Its Queer Discontents in Middle
English Guild Culture English Literature
by Christina M. Fitzgerald by Tison Pugh
Chaucer’s Visions of Manhood Sex, Scandal, and Sermon in Fourteenth-
by Holly A. Crocker Century Spain: Juan Ruiz’s Libro de Buen
Amor
The Literary Subversions of Medieval Women by Louise M. Haywood
by Jane Chance
The Erotics of Consolation: Desire and Distance
Manmade Marvels in Medieval Culture and in the Late Middle Ages
Literature edited by Catherine E. Léglu and
by Scott Lightsey Stephen J. Milner
American Chaucers Battlefronts Real and Imagined: War, Border, and
by Candace Barrington Identity in the Chinese Middle Period
edited by Don J. Wyatt
Representing Others in Medieval Iberian
Literature Wisdom and Her Lovers in Medieval and Early
by Michelle M. Hamilton Modern Hispanic Literature
by Emily C. Francomano
Paradigms and Methods in Early Medieval
Studies Power, Piety, and Patronage in Late Medieval
edited by Celia Chazelle and Felice Queenship: Maria de Luna
Lifshitz by Nuria Silleras-Fernandez
The King and the Whore: King Roderick and In the Light of Medieval Spain: Islam, the West,
La Cava and the Relevance of the Past
by Elizabeth Drayson edited by Simon R. Doubleday and
David Coleman, foreword by Giles
Langland’s Early Modern Identities
Tremlett
by Sarah A. Kelen
Chaucerian Aesthetics
Cultural Studies of the Modern
by Peggy A. Knapp
Middle Ages
edited by Eileen A. Joy, Myra J. Seaman, Memory, Images, and the English Corpus Christi
Kimberly K. Bell, and Mary K. Drama
Ramsey by Theodore K. Lerud
Cultural Diversity in the British Middle Ages: Strange Beauty: Ecocritical Approaches to Early
Archipelago, Island, England Medieval Landscape
edited by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen by Alfred K. Siewers
Excrement in the Late Middle Ages: Sacred Filth Berenguela of Castile (1180–1246) and
and Chaucer’s Fecopoetics Political Women in the High Middle Ages
by Susan Signe Morrison by Miriam Shadis
Authority and Subjugation in Writing of Julian of Norwich’s Legacy: Medieval Mysticism
Medieval Wales and Post-Medieval Reception
edited by Ruth Kennedy and Simon edited by Sarah Salih and Denise
Meecham-Jones N. Baker
The Medieval Poetics of the Reliquary: Medievalism, Multilingualism, and Chaucer
Enshrinement, Inscription, Performance by Mary Catherine Davidson
by Seeta Chaganti
The Letters of Heloise and Abelard: A Translation
The Legend of Charlemagne in the Middle Ages: of Their Complete Correspondence and
Power, Faith, and Crusade Related Writings
edited by Matthew Gabriele and Jace translated and edited by Mary
Stuckey Martin McLaughlin with Bonnie
Wheeler
The Poems of Oswald von Wolkenstein: An
English Translation of the Complete Works Women and Wealth in Late Medieval
(1376/77–1445) Europe
by Albrecht Classen edited by Theresa Earenfight
Women and Experience in Later Medieval Visual Power and Fame in René d’Anjou,
Writing: Reading the Book of Life Geoffrey Chaucer, and the Black Prince
edited by Anneke B. Mulder-Bakker by SunHee Kim Gertz
and Liz Herbert McAvoy
Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog: Medieval Studies
Ethics and Eventfulness in Middle English and New Media
Literature: Singular Fortunes by Brantley L. Bryant
by J. Allan Mitchell
Margaret Paston’s Piety
Maintenance, Meed, and Marriage in Medieval by Joel T. Rosenthal
English Literature
Gender and Power in Medieval Exegesis
by Kathleen E. Kennedy
by Theresa Tinkle
The Post-Historical Middle Ages
edited by Elizabeth Scala and Sylvia Antimercantilism in Late Medieval English
Federico Literature
by Roger A. Ladd
Constructing Chaucer: Author and Autofiction in
the Critical Tradition Magnificence and the Sublime in Medieval
by Geoffrey W. Gust Aesthetics: Art, Architecture, Literature,
Music
Queens in Stone and Silver: The Creation of a
edited by C. Stephen Jaeger
Visual Imagery of Queenship in Capetian
France Medieval and Early Modern Devotional
by Kathleen Nolan Objects in Global Perspective: Translations of
the Sacred
Finding Saint Francis in Literature and Art
edited by Elizabeth Robertson
edited by Cynthia Ho, Beth A. Mulvaney,
and Jennifer Jahner
and John K. Downey
Late Medieval Jewish Identities: Iberia and The Lesbian Premodern
Beyond edited by Noreen Giffney,
edited by Carmen Caballero-Navas and Michelle M. Sauer, and
Esperanza Alfonso Diane Watt
Outlawry in Medieval Literature Heloise and the Paraclete:
by Timothy S. Jones A Twelfth-Century
Women and Disability in Medieval Literature Quest (forthcoming)
by Tory Vandeventer Pearman by Mary Martin McLaughlin
THE LESBIAN PREMODERN
Edited by
Noreen Giffney, Michelle M. Sauer, and Diane Watt
THE LESBIAN PREMODERN
Copyright © Noreen Giffney, Michelle M. Sauer, and Diane Watt, 2011.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2011 978-0-230-61676-9
All rights reserved.
First published in 2011 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-38018-3 ISBN 978-0-230-11719-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230117198
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The lesbian premodern / edited by Noreen Giffney, Michelle M. Sauer,
and Diane Watt.
p. cm.—(The New Middle Ages)
1. Lesbians—History. 2. Homosexuality—History. I. Giffney, Noreen.
II. Sauer, Michelle M., 1972– III. Watt, Diane, 1965–
HQ75.5.L444 2011
306.76(cid:2)6309—dc22 2010025623
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: February 2011
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Heike Bauer for her support and enthusiasm
For Nicole Murray, my hot water bottle
For Adam Bures for his love and encouragement
