© Barbara H. Rosenwein 2022
The right of Barbara H. Rosenwein to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published in 2022 by Polity Press
Polity Press
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ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-3186-8
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Rosenwein, Barbara H., author.
Title: Love: a history in five fantasies / Barbara H. Rosenwein.
Description: Cambridge, UK; Medford, MA: Polity Press, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “A learned guide through the labyrinth of love”-- Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021012470 (print) | LCCN 2021012471 (ebook) | ISBN 9781509531837 (hardback) | ISBN 9781509531868 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Love.
Classification: LCC BF575.L8 R68 2021 (print) | LCC BF575.L8 (ebook) | DDC 152.4/1--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021012470 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021012471
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PHEBE: Good shepherd, tell this youth what ’tis to love.
SILVIUS: It is to be all made of fantasy,
All made of passion and all made of wishes,
All adoration, duty, and observance,
All humbleness, all patience and impatience,
All purity, all trial, all observance,
And so am I for Phebe.
William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act V, scene 2
Acknowledgments
My first debt is to Riccardo Cristiani, with whom many of the topics considered here were first researched, discussed, and written up, albeit in other guises.
I thank seven insightful readers who offered exceptionally useful comments on the manuscript as a whole: Christian Bailey, Naomi Honeth, Frances Freeman Paden, Pascal Porcheron, Tom Rosenwein, Michael Sherman, and Peter N. Stearns. William D. Paden has always given me much to think about, and I am grateful for his comments on a version of chapter 4.
This project went through more changes than most, and in its various forms, including this one, I would gratefully like to acknowledge the help of many friends and colleagues beyond those already mentioned: Katie Barclay, Jan Burzlaff, Angelos Chaniotis, Jennifer Cole, Matthieu Dupas, Laura Fair, Kathryn de Luna, Leslie Dossey, Annalese Duprey-Henry, Dyan Elliott, Abram Van Engen, Nicole Eustace, Elina Gertsman, Frederic Wright Gleach, Adriana Laura Guarro, Susan Karant-Nunn, David Melton, Barbara Newman, Nancy Segal, Mark Seymour, Simon Swain, Lynn M. Thomas, Fabrizio Titone, Uwe Vagelpohl, and Ilona Wysmułek.
I thank Jennifer Stegen, a truly model interlibrary-loan librarian, and I am grateful for the fruitful partnership between the libraries of Loyola University Chicago and Northwestern University, which provided me with many extraordinary resources. At Polity Press, brilliant external readers, a very helpful staff, and above all Pascal Porcheron gave me much appreciated help and encouragement.
With love I thank my family: Jess and her girls, Sophie and Natalie; Frank and Amy and their boys Joshua, Julian, and Benji; and my sister, Naomi, who not only read the book in manuscript but also faithfully sent me emails throughout the thick and thin of this project. She and her husband, Jim, tolerated with good will my chatter via FaceTime about the ever-changing kaleidoscope that was this book in progress. I dedicate the finished product to my husband, Tom. Whatever the fantasies of love may be, he is it.
Note to Readers
All dates are CE (i.e. AD) unless otherwise noted; abbreviations associated with dates are d. = date of death, c. = circa (approximately), fl. = floruit (flourished). I have cited primary sources not originally in English in modern English translations. I have also updated the spelling and punctuation of early modern English materials and have in some instances substituted modern equivalents for outdated words and phrases. Unless otherwise noted, all biblical citations are from The New Oxford Annotated Bible: New Revised Standard Version with the Apocrypha. An Ecumenical Study Bible, ed. Michael D. Coogan with Marc Z. Brettler, Carol A. Newsom, and Pheme Perkins (5th edn, Oxford, 2018). All citations in both text and notes are to page number unless otherwise noted.
1. ‘Before I Fight this Dragon’ New Yorker Cartoon
Maddie Dai’s prudent knight upsets our fantasies about valorous medieval knights who risk their lives for love of their lady.
2. Sergius and Bacchus
The military saints Sergius and Bacchus were the best of friends and (as their biographer said) “undivided from each other.” In this icon from the 7th century, the halos of the two saints and Christ form a golden chain uniting them in love.
