Medieval Sensibilities - A History Of Emotions In The Middle Ages

What do we know of the emotional life of the Middle Ages? Though a long-neglected subject, a myriad of sources - spiritual and secular literature, iconography, chronicles, as well as theological and medical works - provides clues to the central role emotions played in medieval society.

In this work, historians Damien Boquet and Piroska Nagy delve into a rich variety of texts and images to reveal the many and nuanced experiences of emotion during the Middle Ages. From the demonstrative shame of a saint to a nobleman's fear of embarrassment, from friendship among monks to suffering in imitation of Christ, from the enthusiasm of a crusading band to the fear of a town threatened by the approach of war or plague, the examples are countless. Boquet and Nagy show how these outbursts of joy and pain, while universal expressions, must be understood within the specific context of medieval society. During the Middle Ages, a Christian model of affectivity was formed in the 'laboratory' of the monasteries, one which gradually seeped into wider society, interacting with the sensibilities of courtly culture and other forms of expression. 

Bouqet and Nagy bring a thousand years of history to life, demonstrating how the study of emotions in medieval society can also enable us to understand better our own social outlooks and customs. Medieval Sensibilities will be of great interest to students and scholars of the Middle Ages, as well as to general readers interested in new perspectives on the past.

Damien Boquet is Lecturer in History at the University of Aix-Marseille.

Piroska Nagy is Professor of Medieval History at the University of Quebec at Montreal.