The language of sex

John W. Baldwin

This innovative study by a premier scholar of the Middle Ages brings together widely divergent discourses to fashion an unusually provocative, comprehensive picture of sexual language and attitudes at a particular time and place in the medieval world. John Baldwin introduces five representative voices from the turn of the twelfth century in northern France: Pierre the Chanter speaks for the theological doctrine of Augustine; the Prose Salernitan Questions, for the medical theories of Galen; Andre the Chaplain, for the Ovidian literature of the schools; Jean Renart, for the contemporary romances; and Jean Bodel, for the emerging voices of the fabliaux. Juxtaposing their views on a range of essential subjects, including social position, the sexual body, desire and act, and procreation, Baldwin allows us into the discussion of sexuality inside the church and schools of the clergy, in...

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