Marriage in Europe, 1400–1800 ed. by Silvana Seidel Menchi (review)

The study of marriage and its concomitant institution, the family, has ebbed and flowed over the past fifty or sixty years. From interest in theological and ideological foundations in the 1960s, focus shifted with the demographic approach of the Annales school. Subsequently, historians' burgeoning interest in new historical approaches and topics such as cultural studies and postcolonialism, gender, and sexuality studies slowed what had been a rich field of research. In the last decade, however, the study of the history of marriage has again garnered scholarly attention.

This collection of eleven articles reveals a new stage in the study of marriage. The articles are based on research for eight European countries, moving from Sweden to Spain, England to Italy, and including France, the Low Countries, and the Swiss and Germanic areas. In addition, there is an introductory article on the foundations of Christian marriage and a final article on the papal curia and marriages across religious denominations. As is evident from the temporal sweep of the volume, the articles not only cross linguistic and cultural differences but also religious differences and controversies, moving from a universal Catholic understanding of marriage, through the changes imposed in various Reformed jurisdictions, as well as those implemented by the counter-reformation.

This is a deeply scholarly volume; an integrated bibliography stretches forty-seven pages, while an integrated index enhances comparability across the articles. The volume is carefully crafted; the contributors met at three seminars over several years to exchange views and integrate their ideas. This accounts for the volume's coherent approach to early modern marriage. All of the articles use archival data, primarily court records of marriage cases, to examine the experience of individuals and to push past the theoretical to reflect on marriage as a lived reality. The result is a coherence of purpose that reflects cultural and religious similarities and differences and highlights continuity and change.

The introduction by Seidel Menchi provides an exemplary overview of each article, demonstrating their interconnectedness to each other and to the field. It also provides a useful overview of the meta-issues and themes that cut across the collection, including the modification of the meaning of betrothal, the role of marriage rites, and marriage as sacrament or contract, indissoluble or dissoluble. These and other challenging issues took on different forms, at different times, in different regions.

Despite the multiplicity of contradictions, transformations, and intersections, the articles provide an important overview of marriage across early modern Europe. All of the articles recognize the shared ideological origins of marriage but move past laws and church teachings to examine marriage as lived in different cultural and religious contexts. The foundation for subsequent articles is provided in the introductory examination of the shared laws of marriage, followed by an examination of how debates emerged along confessional lines, for example, with respect to Catholic views of indissolubility and Protestant ideas about what circumstances might dissolve a marriage. Italy, with its uniform Catholic perspective, nevertheless experienced tensions between the control of marriage by family and attempts to control it from above, especially with respect to freedom of choice of spouse. In contrast, in Sweden, the major considerations involved the transfer of property. The Holy Roman Empire presented a different context given the interdenominational social context, whereas England proved resistant to modifications to marriage practices until the end of the early modern period. The Low Countries present a different view of control with both secular and religious authorities trying to control sexual activity. Spain, too, sought to control individuals and marriage, but France implemented the most drastic marital regime, replacing ecclesiastical jurisdiction with royal control. The final chapter examines the question of marriage across denominational lines, a transgressive act prohibited by all religious denominations.

Collectively, the articles in this volume cover immense ground geographically, temporally, ideologically, and religiously. There is, however, a firm foundation, a consistency of approach, and thematic guidelines that provide a clear articulation of marriage during this period of tumultuous change.