Venantius Fortunatus was a great sixth-century Latin poet, Christian bishop, and saint. He was born in the 530s near Treviso in present-day Italy. He received a thorough, classical education in Ravenna as a young man. Then in 566 he moved to Metz in the northeast of present-day France to seek advancement in the Merovingian court. In letters and poems concerning his close friendship with Radegund of Thuringia and Agnes, abbess of the Abbey of the Holy Cross at Poitiers, Fortunatus showed a keen sense of gender and love in ordinary life. Venantius Fortunatus died between 600 and 610, probably in Poitiers.
Eleanor of Aquitaine and Louis VII of France had sexual conflict in their marriage. They divorced. Their marital problems are now pervasive. … Read the post Eleanor of Aquitaine and Louis VII’s marital problems
Fortunatus’s De virginitate, written for Abbess Agnes, shows the split between disparaging men’s sexuality publicly and appreciating it personally. … Read the post Fortunatus’s De virginitate incoherently disparages men’s sexuality
Radegund’s learned letter-poem De excidio Thoringiae expresses ardent love for Amalfred with Jerome’s sense of men’s disadvantaged gender position. … Read the post Radegund of Thuringia loved Amalfred in Jerome’s way
Optatianus Porfyrius early in the 4th century used word, image, & scale of address in a carmen cancellatum (gridded poem) to bring enlightenment to Roman men. … Read the post carmen cancellatum of Optatianus Porfyrius: words weren’t enough