Entangling medieval emotions and gender in Mediterranean history

This essay introduces a group of essays that together explore the entanglement of gender and emotions in the medieval period, with a special interest in the Mediterranean. Focusing on the practices of crusading, pilgrimage, friendship and diplomacy from the twelfth to the fifteenth century, the essays reveal some of the many modes of human connection across the Mediterranean and beyond. These connections were informed by multiple factors – political, economic, social, religious and cultural. Considering the interplay of gender and emotions deepens our understanding of the complexity of the Mediterranean world and gives us fresh insights into the relationships that stretched across the sea itself, its many and diverse communities, and its cultures of belief and thought.