In thirteenth-century France, Matheus (Mahieu) of Boulogne studied law and logic. He lived many years in Paris and became a well-connected cleric practicing canon law. He attended the Council of Lyon in 1274. Then he married the widow Petra. He was expelled from his church post for being a bigamist (marrying a widow). His wife Petra further made his life miserable. In 1290 or 1291, Matheolus (as he is commonly known) completed a 5,614 verse work in Latin, Lamentationes Matheoluli {Lamentations of Little, Little Matheus}. It’s a witty masterpiece of men’s sexed protest. Between 1380 and 1387, Jehan Le Fèvre loosely translated Matheolus’s work into French and added the contrasting work, Le livre de Leesce.
Sophisticated Priapea (Priapus poems) engaged in urbane critique of the brutalizing social construction of men’s person and gender stereotypes. … Read the post Priapea critique brutalizing & commodifying stereotypes
Combining sex, crime, and outrage, retellings of the widow of Ephesus story have long been at the sweet spot of communicative attention. … Read the post widow of Ephesus story in three retellings
Matheolus’s sexed protest against his injuries from the church and his wife generated quarrels about women, apologies to women, and defenses of women. … Read the post men’s protest, then quarrels, apologies & defenses for women
The marriage of Matheolus and Petra overthrew the grammar of sex, just as did Alexander the Great’s mistress riding Aristotle as a mare. … Read the post grammar of sex in marriage for Matheolus and Petra
Lamentationes Matheoluli, Matheolus’s response to abuse from the church and his wife, is a masterpiece of medieval Latin literature of men’s sexed protest. … Read the post Matheolus: medieval Latin literature protesting church & wife