The concept of virginity is developed within and across a number of different discourses in the Middle Ages: medical scientific treatises, patristic writings, and the medieval commentaries on them, legal records and literary texts. This book explores the representations of virginity and its verifications in these discourses to present a lucid study of the significance of virginity in the Middle Ages.

This book challenges the belief that female virginity can be reliably and unambiguously defined, tested and verified. Kelly analyses a variety of medieval Western European texts - including medical treatises and their Classical antecedents - and historical and legal documents. The main focus is the representation of both male and female virgins in saints' legends and romances. The author also makes a comparative study of examples from contemporary fiction, television and film in which testing virginity is a theme. Performing Virginity and Testing Chastity in the Middle Ages presents a...