The Material Culture of Sex, Procreation, and Marriage in Premodern Europe

This interdisciplinary anthology uses material culture as an exceptionally rewarding avenue of historical access to women's lives. These original essays range widely to cover utilitarian tools used in Late Roman abortion to sacred, magical or ritual objects associated with sex, procreation, and marriage in the Renaissance. The essays demonstrate the complex relationship between language and object, and explore the ways in which objects become forms of communication in their own right, transmitting both rather specific messages and more generalized social and cultural values.