This volume draws on many disciplines - history, art, theology, and literature - in order to penetrate the special character of medieval marriage. It covers the entire period from 1000 to 1500, with special emphasis on the 12th and 13th centuries.

This wide-ranging book offers fascinating insights into the nature of marriage in the Middle Ages, both in its social, political, legal, and religious aspects, and in its treatment in contemporary art and literature. Drawing on sources as diverse as the letters of Abelard and Heloise, the epics of Wolfram von Eschenbach, and Jan van Eyck's painting Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife, and Chaucer's poetry, this most complete account of medieval marriage ever published explores such topics as the role of the Church Fathers and the Bible, the practice and law of marriage, the cult of celibacy, and the relationship between marriage and architecture.

`lucid and authoritative account' History