Handbook of Medieval Sexuality (review)

160 Reviews response to the events of the Wars of Religion. She argues that since few members of the pro-Catholic Parlement of Paris left an individual record of their opinions, D u Tillet's works provide insight as a reflection of the mindset of this powerful section of the community. Brown provides a dense introduction situating D u Tillet's work in its historical and political context. However, some comparison to contemporary tracts might have been useful to draw attention to those original elements and sources in D u Tillet's works and those which were c o m m o n to many pro-Catholic treatises. Each work is prefaced by a further brief note containing bibliographical details. The decision to publish both an English translation and the original French text makes the book accessible to a wide audience. The smooth English translations provide the non-French reader with an introduction to the issues and debates of the French Wars of Religion and the sixteenthcentury French specialist can consult the original text, otherwise only available in manuscript copies in Paris. The bibliography provides a vast array of further reading material to which an interested reader could refer, although a division between primary source material and secondary reading matter would have been helpful. However, minor criticisms do not detract from what is essentially a well-researched and informative addition to the study of both the Reformation and sixteenth-century France. Susan Broomhall School of European Languages The University of Western Australia Bullough, Vern L. and James A. Brundage, ed., Handbook of Medieval Sexuality (Garland Reference Library of the Humanities 1696), N e w York and London, Garland, 1996; board; pp. xviii, 441; R.R.P. US$78.00. The aim of this Handbook, according to the editors' Introduction, is to compensate for the neglect of the field of sexuality in earlier medievalists' work and to draw to scholars' and students' attention the state of research in this area in the hope of increasing 'its interest and appeal for the next generation of scholars' (p. ix). With this in Reviews 161 mind, the Handbook is designed as a collection of 'overviews and guides, indicating what is known and suggesting opportunities for further research' (p. xvi). Each of the eighteen essays is accompanied by a detailed bibliography of reference works, primary sources and important studies, and these will indeed prove indispensable to further research. The essays are divided into three Sections: Sexual Norms, Variance horn Norms, and Cultural Issues. Inevitably, most readers will find the divisions somewhat arbitrary, many of the essays in the first and second sections necessarily dealing with material that complicates the notion of a norm. A n d it might be argued that, to their credit, all of the essays in the volume engage with cultural issues, the essays in Section III surveying specific linguistic or religious contexts rather than particular social phenomena. Section I contains 'Confession and the Study of Sex in the Middle Ages' (Pierre J . Payer), 'Sex and Canon Law' (James A. Brundage), 'Western Medicine and Natural Philosophy' (Joan Cadden), 'Gendered Sexuality' (Joyce E. Salisbury), 'Chaste Marriage in the Middle Ages: "It were to hire a greet merite'" (Margaret McGlynn and Richard J. Moll) and 'Hiding Behind the Universal Man: Male Sexuality in the Middle Ages' (Jacqueline Murray). Section II contains 'Homosexuality' (Warren Johansson and William A. Percy), 'Twice Marginal and Twice Invisible: Lesbians in the Middle Ages' (Jacqueline Murray), 'Cross Dressing and Gender Role Change in the Middle Ages' (Vern L. Bullough), 'Prostitution in Medieval Europe' (Ruth Mazo Karras), 'Contraception and Early Abortion in the Middle Ages' (John M . Riddle) and 'Castration and Eunuchism in the Middle Ages' (Matthew S. Kuefler). Section III contains 'A Note on Research into Jewish Sexuality in the Medieval Period' (Norman Roth), 'A Research Note on Sexuality and Muslim Civilization' (Norman Roth), 'Eastern Orthodox Christianity' (Eve Levin), 'Sexuality in Medieval French Literature: Separes, on est Ensemble' (Laurie A. Finke), 'Old Norse Sexuality: Men, W o m e n and Beasts' (Jenny Jochens), 'Sex Roles and the Role of Sex in Medieval English Literature' (David Lampe). Such a range of detailed scholarship deserves closer attention than this review can...