Appel à contribution: “Making the beast with two backs: love, sex and relationships in the Renaissance”, date limite le 6 février
Affairs of the heart have been afflicting men and women around the world for thousands of years, and the early modern period was certainly no different. Often when we think of love and sexual relationships during that time in Europe, we tend to imagine a (largely) Christian society, in which men and women married primarily in order to procreate. Although this is accurate to a certain extent, the reality was much more interesting and varied than it might seem at first glance. Kings openly paraded their mistresses at court, monasteries were rumoured to be hives of sexual activity, and secret marriage ceremonies existed which were not necessarily approved of by the Church. These are just a very few examples of the surprising and often contradictory attitudes towards love, sex and relationships that existed in Renaissance Europe.

Lorenzo Lotto, Signor Marsilio Cassotti et sa femme, Faustina, 1523. Huile sur toile, 71 x 84 cm. Museo del Prado, Madrid.
With this in mind, we are very pleased to announce the call for submissions for our third issue of Renaissance Hub magazine. We strongly believe in promoting the continued relevance of early modern thought to a non-academic audience; as such we are looking for content which will address the issues described above from the fascinating starting point of the Renaissance (loosely defined here as 1450-1650). We are looking for specialists in the field to bring these themes to life in a fun and exciting way, particularly for a wider audience who may not be entirely familiar with early modern thought. Renaissance Hub is currently accepting brief articles of approximately 1000-1500 words which deal with any of the following topics:
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Men are from Mars, women are from Venus?: religion and the institution of marriage; politics and arranged marriages; marrying for love; the dynamics between husbands and wives in the early modern period
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Groping for trout in a peculiar river: sex outside marriage; contraception and abortion in the Renaissance; prostitutes and courtesans; courtly love; adultery; attitudes towards homosexuality
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Artistic depictions of love and sex in the Renaissance: erotic literature and pornography; famous lovers in literature and art; Renaissance relationship advice; sonnets and love poetry; love and philosophy
As well as looking for book reviews, we have extended our ‘Reviews’ section to include theatre performances, art exhibitions, public lectures and television documentaries. So if you have attended a recent play or talk which relates to our current call for submissions, then please do submit a review of approximately 1000-1500 words.
The deadline for all submissions is 16:00, Monday 6th February. Please send your article or review via email to renaissancehubmag@gmail.com. We particularly welcome submissions which manage to show parallels (however brief!) between the Renaissance and 21st century attitudes towards love, sex and relationships. We would also like to stress that we welcome content dealing with any and every aspect of culture, religion and philosophy across this time period, from Western Europe to East Asia, Calvinism to Kabbalah. The description above uses Renaissance Europe as a starting point since this is the area in which the editorial team specialise. However, we would be very interested to learn more about non-European cultures from this time and how they compare with the attitudes listed above.
If you have any further questions, please feel free to e-mail us at the address listed above, or you can send us a message by clicking on the ‘Contact’ page of our website. You can also find a link to our style sheet here which we would ask you to consult before handing in the final version of your submission. We look forward to hearing from you!
OpenEdition vous propose de citer ce billet de la manière suivante :
Marie Piccoli-Wentzo (28 janvier 2017). Appel à contribution: “Making the beast with two backs: love, sex and relationships in the Renaissance”, date limite le 6 février. Collectif d'Historiens de l'Art de la Renaissance. Consulté le 14 février 2025 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/mnps