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Perceptions about gender and sexuality have played a prominent role in shaping the lives of men and women in every known culture and in every period of history. To study these topics is to dive into the underlying religious, social, philosophical and scientific influences in society, through which the differing roles of men and women are also defined. Understanding their meaning specifically during the Middle Ages requires an examination of the ideas, laws and institutions of the time. For example, looking back at the Christian church’s own regulations, examining the ways in which the medieval medical community described anatomy, exploring how chroniclers recorded events of the time and analyzing the social criticism found in medieval literature all help to depict medieval society’s conceptualization of sexuality and gender. This reader brings such documents from throughout the medieval world into one collection. Representing a diverse range of ethnic, geographic and religious backgrounds, documents of the late Roman, Germanic, Anglo-Norman, Mediterranean, Byzantine, Slavic, Jewish and Islamic identities are all included. Here, the sources used are also derived from various fields - religious foundations, Christian thought, law, chronicles, literature, biology, medicine and science, witchcraft and heresy, Judaism and Islam - and the book’s chapters are organized according to these nine areas allowing for comparative examination of different societies and periods of the Middle Ages.
