On Wed, 7 Aug 1996 23:27:56 -0400 (EDT) David S. Liu wrote:
> From: David S. Liu <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Wed, 7 Aug 1996 23:27:56 -0400 (EDT)
> Subject: Re: FEAST 5 August (Virginity)
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> On Wed, 7 Aug 1996, Dennis D. Martin wrote:
>
> > can refer equally to men and woman and is so used. It has to do
> > precisely with whether or not one has experienced genital sexual
> > intercourse or not.
> Does that mean a male person can only lose his virginity by having
> genital intercourse with a person of the opposite sex? I am skeptical iabout
> such a clinical definition written in medieval text, but surely that is what we
> mean by the term, "losing one's virginity" nowadays. Has anyone come
> across medieval definition (or sometihng that comes close to a
> definition) which would settle the question, what makes one a virgin?
>
> David Liu
> Centre for Medieval Studies, Toronto.
St Anselm has a prayer which is sometimes translated as 'lament for his lost virginity'; it has been
suggested (and Southern discusses the question in 'St Anselm: Portrait in a landscape') that this
may have been with a man. This is highly speculative, but it may be worth looking at the language
of Anselm's lament in the original - I haven't done this. Oriens.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|