Same-Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe [SEP] publisher
Same-Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe
Same-Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe (UK title; The Marriage of Likeness: Same-Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe) is a historical study written by American historian John Boswell and first published by Villard Books in 1994. Then a professor at Yale University, Boswell was a specialist on homosexuality in Christian Europe, having previously authored three books on the subject. It proved to be his final publication, released in the same year as his death.
historically recorded in Africa, Asia and the Americas, he remarks that there is no reason why they should not have been found in Europe. He acknowledges that the book focuses on male same-sex unions, explaining that the historical evidence from Pre-Modern Europe predominantly discusses men, the socially dominant gender of the time.
Chapter one, "The Vocabulary of Love and Marriage", highlights the problems in translating words describing both emotions and unions from Ancient Greek and Latin into Modern English, and explains that "marriage