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.
Recent Posts
“Homosexual Hearers” and Queer Musicality in Xavier Mayne’s The Intersexes (1909)
Squirming in the Dark: Playful Occupations for Sex Workers in the 1870 Census
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“The best fighters of each other’s oppressions”: Trans and Non-Trans Solidarity in Lesbian Communities
“Beyond the Law”: The Politics Ending the Death Penalty for Sodomy in Britain