Works of the flesh. The intimate life of people of the Middle Ages in the space of judicial controversy

Olga Togoeva is a Russian medieval historian, specialist in the history of medieval France. Doctor of Historical Sciences, chief researcher at the Institute of General History of the Russian Academy of Sciences. This book talks about what historical sources are usually silent about - about the private lives of people of the Middle Ages and early modern times, about their personal experiences, about marital love and betrayal, about unrequited feelings, about friendship, grievances, attempts to solve family problems independently or with the help of official authorities. The heroes of the stories collected here were the simplest inhabitants, who were almost never mentioned in chronicles, theological works, didactic treatises or works of art. These people could come to the attention of the historian only if they were involved in various crimes and the court began to take an interest in them. Materials from criminal investigations that were conducted in the French kingdom for many centuries allow us to partly penetrate into the innermost secrets of its inhabitants, to hear how and what they said about the most intimate moments of their lives, to find out what was permissible for them to discuss publicly and what was not , to understand what legal and general cultural ideas they were guided by. The book is addressed to historians, legal scholars, philologists, cultural experts, as well as a wide range of readers interested in the history of everyday life and private life.