By exploring their sex lives, The Fires of Lust brings ordinary medieval people to life.
Author: Katherine Harvey
‘Longer than a big man’s thigh’: The Perfect Penis in Medieval Europe
What did medieval people think about penises?
‘Behaviour Which Merits a Horrible and Wretched Death’: Sex, Sin and the Black Death in Medieval England
Medieval people feared that the Black Death was a punishment for sin, and hoped that abstaining from sex could save them.
Like a Virgin? The Medieval Origins of a Modern Debate
A recent Vatican ruling on consecrated virgins has caused controversy, but there are medieval precedents for the new approach.
Carnal Knowledge: Regulating Sex in England, 1470-1600
Sexual behaviour was strictly regulated in late medieval and Tudor England.
Same-Sex Marriage in Renaissance Rome
Same-sex couples in the early modern period claimed marriage in their own particular ways.
The Boswell Legacy: Revisiting John Boswell’s Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality
Three historians explore the legacy of John Boswell’s landmark text.
