Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 6831
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): Epp , Garrett P.J.
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: Learning to Write with Venus's Pen: Sexual Regulation in Matthew of Vend™me's "Ars versificatoria"
  • Source: Desire and Discipline: Sex and Sexuality in the Premodern West.  Edited by Jacqueline Murray and Konrad Eisenbichler.  University of Toronto Press, 1996.  Pages 265 - 279.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Essay
  • Subject (See Also): Grammar Handbooks Homosexuality in Literature Matthieu de Vend™me, Poet- Ars Versificatoria Rhetoric Sexuality in Literature
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: France
  • Century: 12
  • Primary Evidence:
  • Illustrations:
  • Table:
  • Abstract:
  • Related Resources: "Garrett P.J. Epp, "Learning to Write with Venus's Pen: Sexual Regulation in Matthew of Vend™me's Ars versificatoria", translates a number of the "dirty bits" in this little-known but important work for the grammatical training of boys. Epp argues convincingly that explicit references to sexuality were included as warnings to boys that they were to behave. Correct grammar and masculine control went together. Epp belies some of Matthew's own playfulness in his last sentence, where the reader inevitably reads "penis" instead of "pens": "...learning the proper use of their pens" (p. 276)." From the review written by Brian McGuire of "Desire and Discipline: Sex and Sexuality in the Premodern West," "Medieval Review" (TMR ID: 96.12.11). [Reproduced by permission of the "Medieval Review."].
  • Author's Affiliation: University of Alberta, Edmonton
  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 1996.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN/ISBN: 0802007805