Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 8177
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): Naessens , Mariann.
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: Judicial Authorities' Views of Women's Roles in Late Medieval Flanders [The author examines court records concerning various sexual crimes including adultery, brothel keeping, and cross dressing. The judges appear to be most concerned with men's honor as preserved through women's fidelity and subordination. Title note supplied by Feminae.].
  • Source: The Texture of Society: Medieval Women in the Southern Low Countries.  Edited by Ellen E. Kittell and Mary A. Suydam.  Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.  Pages 51 - 77.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Essay
  • Subject (See Also): Adultery Bruges, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium Courts of Law Crime and Criminals Cross Dressing Cuckolds Gender Gent, Oost-Vlaannderen, Belgium Honor Houses of Prostitution Morality Punishment Sexuality
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: Low Countries
  • Century: 15- 16
  • Primary Evidence:
  • Illustrations: Four figures. Figure One Transvestism, from Adriaen van de Venne's Album (1626). Figure Two Brothel scene, woodcut from "De Verloren Sone," printed by Willem Vorsterman in 1540 in Antwerp (London, British Library BL Shelfmark number c34 h 7). Figure Three Adultery, woodcut from Joos de Damhouder, "Practycke ende handbouck in criminele zaeken," printed in 1551 (Gent, Library of the University of Gent, Jur. 932, p. 145). Figure Four Cornuto (Cuckold), from Joris Hoefnaghel, "Patientia, 24 politieke emblemata," 1569 (Rouen, municipal library of Rouen, MS Leber 2916, fol. 23).
  • Table: Three tables. Table One Sex ratio of brothel-keepers in Gent from the "Book of Exiles" and the bailiff's accounts, late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Table Two Marital status of brothel keepers in Gent, from the same sources. Table Three Sex ratios of adulterers. Data included for Bruges (1459-1537), Gent (1300-1555), Ypres (1300-1555) and the Church (15th century).
  • Abstract:
  • Related Resources:
  • Author's Affiliation: University of Leuven, Campus Kortrijk
  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 2004.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN/ISBN: 0312293321