How Medieval Women Expressed Their 'Forbidden' Emotions

An illuminated manuscript illustration of Marie de France, a 12th-century poet Public domain via Wikimedia Commons Medieval Europe was a place of great emotional incontinence, so much so that historian Johan Huizinga once claimed, “Modern man has … no idea of the unrestrained extravagance of the medieval heart.” Crying was ubiquitous—especially by religious men and women, as writing and illustrations in religious…