Emotions in Europe, 1100–1700

The aim of the present collection is to focus attention on new and emerging methodologies for emotions study in the medieval and early modern period. As just about every recent work or review on emotions has observed, the field broadly known as ‘the history of emotions’ is growing rapidly. Its corpus includes a wide variety of types of interventions. Monographs have produced detailed analyses of feeling cultures in specific time periods, many captured within book series dedicated to study of historical emotions. ¹ There are equally broad-ranging studies and multi-volume series that place emphasis on the historical trajectory of emotional experience and expression. ² Alongside these, other scholars are interested in documenting the kinds of theories and perspectives that have enabled the growth of the field, and in comparing and contrasting different approaches. ³ The rapid explosion of engagement with this field has led yet other researchers to produce short introductions that synthesize the field’s many complicated debates, approaches and intersections with other lines of humanities enquiry. ⁴ Increasingly, researchers are also seeking ways to meld humanities approaches to emotions history with those taken from the social sciences – especially anthropology and psychology – and the life sciences, including neurology. ⁵