The VERY raunchy history of sex in the Middle Ages is revealed in a new book

From The Daily Mail:

From monks thought to have died from a lack of sex, to priests conjuring demons to lure women into bed, a new book offers fascinating glimpses into the history of sex in the Middle Ages.

Katherine Harvey's illuminating novel The Fires of Lust: Sex in the Middle Ages offers a peak into the bedrooms of ordinary mediaeval men and women living in western Europe.

Harvey is a London-based historian and author specialising in the medieval period and Honorary Research Fellow specialising in history, classics and archaeology at Birkbeck, University of London.

The book explains how the majority of ideas and attitudes towards sex and relationships were rooted in two dominant belief systems: Roman Catholic Christianity and Galenic medicine.

From women trying to reduce their breasts to look more virginal to drinking wine mixed with powdered hare testicles in a bid to conceive a son, the book reveals many astonishing practices.

As well as some surprises, like an emphasis on female pleasure when it came to reproduction, there are shocking anecdotes of brutal punishments for behaviour deemed immoral during the period.

read more here @ Daily Mail.

Review: Traditions Of Death & Burial by Helen Frisby

Synopsis: An illustrated introduction to rites and traditions relating to death, funerary rites and commemoration, from Medieval times to the present day.

It was the author's intent to explore how, through the medium of custom and tradition, relationships between the living, the dying and the dead, have been shaped and re-shaped over the last millennium.

Covering the periods in English history and tradition from the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066 up until our current times and beyond, we are taken through the changes in religion, social attitudes and the concept of remembrance.

A brief chapter summary as follows:

1066 - 1500: concept of purgatory and redemption; growth of burial and funeral processions; introduction of more elaborate funerary arrangements.

1500 - 1750: Reformation; the absence of indulgences; purgatory redundant with the ethos of predestination; increase in funerary accoutrements among the middle classes; introduction of more details lists of causes of deaths; changes in the treatment of corpse; rise of the resurrectionists; funerals becoming secular and life-focused.

1750 - 1900: new diseases brings a rise in mortality rates; change in funerary customs and introduction of the "garden cemetary"; death photography; proliferation of ready-made funerary goods and clothing; social etiquette and invitation only; cremation; rise of the spiritualist movement.

1900 - 2000: society more materialistic; lack of funerary customs; longer life span; death becoming medicalised; increased bureaucracy; viewings moved from home to chapels of rest; increased demand for cremation; subsidence of funerary hospitality.

Now & Future: rise of degenerative diseases; euthenasia; post mortem photography; bespoke deaths; rise of celebrants; industrial death and burial; cryogenics; wayside memorials; social media dedications.

An interesting tome.

Book: The Prince In Splendour

If preparing Christmas dinner in your household seems exhausting, spare a thought for the Royal kitchen of Henry III.

Over Christmas in 1251, he and guests tucked into 830 deer, 200 wild boar, 1,300 hares, 385 pigeons and 115 cranes – and that was just the wild game menu.

Such lavish affairs are recorded by Woodbridge historian Richard Barber in his book, The Prince in Splendour: Court Festivals of Medieval Europe.

As well presented as the events it describes, the 280-page book examines medieval court festivals in all their grandeur.

“One of the things I like about medieval history is that there are very few primary sources of record,” said the author.

Read entire article by Tom Potter @ East Anglian Daily Times

Death and the Afterlife in Byzantium

This interdisciplinary study provides an in-depth analysis and synthesis of hagiography, theological treatises, apocryphal texts and liturgical services, as well as images of the fate of the soul in manuscript and monumental decoration. It also places the imagery of the afterlife, both literary and artistic, within the context of Byzantine culture, spirituality, and soteriology. The book intends to be the definitive study on concepts of the afterlife in Byzantium.

Read more here @ Yale News

Death in Medieval Europe

URI history professor edits book about death in Medieval Europe – URI Today

The essays by Rollo-Koster and other scholars explore the cultural effects of death and how it influenced everyday life, from mourning practices to commemorations. URI chatted with her recently about her research.

“Images of death abounded in the later Middle Ages, especially in the period after the Black Death in the mid-14th century,’’ says Rollo-Koster, a renowned medieval scholar. “It was part of life, ritualized and choreographed, unlike today, where it is hidden and closeted.”

Read more here @ URI Today (University of Rhode Island)

Life Lessons from the Roman Empire

Ancient Greek manuscripts reveal life lessons from the Roman empire | Books | The Guardian

Ever been unsure about how to deal with a drunken family member returning from an orgy? A collection of newly translated textbooks aimed at Greek speakers learning Latin in the ancient world might hold the solution.

Professor Eleanor Dickey travelled around Europe to view the scraps of material that remain from ancient Latin school textbooks, or colloquia, which would have been used by young Greek speakers in the Roman empire learning Latin between the second and sixth centuries AD. The manuscripts, which Dickey has brought together and translated into English for the first time in her forthcoming book Learning Latin the Ancient Way: Latin Textbooks in the Ancient World, lay out everyday scenarios to help their readers get to grips with life in Latin. Subjects range from visiting the public baths to arriving at school late – and dealing with a sozzled close relative.

The oldest versions of the texts exist as fragments on papyri in Egypt, where the climate meant they survived. Due to the size of these fragments, Dickey had to refer to medieval manuscripts from across Europe. “They have been copied and copied over many centuries, with everyone introducing more mistakes, so they’re not that readable. As an editor, I had to find all the different manuscripts and try to work out what the mistakes were, so I could get to the original text.”

Dickey shows how the students had glossaries to help them get to grips with the new language, collecting together lists of words on useful subjects such as sacrifices (“exta” means entrails, “victimator” is a calf-slaughterer and “hariolus” is a soothsayer) and entertainment. “They’re definitely not the same sorts of words as we’d need,” said Dickey.

Read more here at The Guardian