The interdisciplinary summer school Marriage in Premodern Europe (1400–1800), jointly organized by Viadrina and Sorbonne University (Paris 1), investigates marriage as a theological, legal, and socio-political institution. Combining perspectives from literary studies, theology, religious and art history, and gender studies, the program examines how confessionalisation and legal regulation shaped norms, rituals, and power relations across Catholic, Lutheran, and Reformed traditions. Particular attention is given to the interaction between doctrine, institutional authority, and lived experience in the formation of premodern matrimonial cultures.

Presentation

Far from being merely a private institution, marriage was a central issue in the religious, political, and social transformations of premodern Europe. Between the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) and the Council of Trent (1545–1563), the Church progressively asserted its control over conjugal unions, elevating marriage to the status of a sacrament and defining its doctrinal and legal framework. These developments profoundly reshaped matrimonial practices, power relations, and cultural representations of the couple. Across these transformations, marriage emerged as a site of negotiation between institutional imperatives, political strategies, and the lived experiences of couples. The workshops aim to approach the various premodern economic, religious, and legal forces and dynamics that shaped ideas and practices of marriage.

The joint initiative between the European-University Viadrina (Frankfurt/Oder) and the Sorbonne University (Paris 1) offers a summer school that encourages a multidisciplinary and international approach, convening literary scholars, historians of religion, theologians, and art historians. By examining marriage as both a theological construct and a socio-political institution between 1400 and 1800, we will explore how confessionalisation and shifts in matrimonial regulation shaped Christian anthropology, legal norms, and cultural practices. The comparative perspective shall shed light on specific developments of marriage within Catholic, Lutheran, and Reformed traditions, interrogating tensions between legal and theological norms, debates and social realities. Further, the elaboration of nuptial traditions, cultures, rituals and performativity will provide fruitful perspectives into the functioning of matrimonial unions as means of dynastic consolidation and confessional negotiation. In addition to its theological and institutional dimensions, the panels and workshops will address gendered power structures and the regulation of bodies, drawing upon gender studies, feminist theology, and intersectional historiography. 

Beyond its theological and institutional dimensions, the panels and workshops will emphasise gendered power structures and the regulation of bodies, drawing from gender studies, feminist theology, and intersectional historiography. Marriage, far from being a mere legal contract or an immutable sacrament, has historically operated as a structuring dispositive of social and sexual norms, defining gendered roles and disciplining desire. Our aim is o offer new perspectives on how marriage functioned as a governing instrument, assigning specific roles to women and framing sexual practices within a broader logic of moral and social order.

Program

Monday 1 september

9:00 – Welcome and gathering together

• 10:00 – Thematic introduction: Premodern Marriage in Literature, Gender, Culture & Art History (Monett Reißig & Alysée Le Druillenec)
• 11:00 – Discussion on Connecting approaches and perspectives: changes and challenges of interdisciplinary research (art history, history, theology, philosophy, archeology, architecture, littérature, anthropology)

12:30 – Lunchbreak

14:30 – Key note in the Church of the Val-de-Grâce

• Alysée Le Druillenec, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne & UCLouvain, The Nativity by Michel Anguier at Notre-Dame-du-Val-de-Grâce: an ecclesiological discourse on the Primum Mobile of all graces granted to Saint Joseph

Tuesday 2 september

09:00 – Key note

• Jean-Jacques Vincensini, Professeur des universités émérite à l’Université de Tours, The Middle Ages, an Art of Loving?

10:00 – Panel on Chastity, Virginity & Love

• Mathilde Mares, UCLouvain, The Serial Iconography of Virtues through Topical Variations: the Case of Chastity
• Hadrien Amiel, ENS-PSL, Courtly Love and the Idea of Marriage

12 :30 – Lunchbreak

• 14:30 – Alix Buisseret, Mathilde Mares, Hadrien Amiel, Expert-Led Tour at the Musée de Cluny

Wednesday 3 september

09:00 – Panel on the Sacrament of Marriage in the Gallican Culture and History

• Alysée Le Druillenec, Widow, Virgin and Wife : Madame de Maintenon as St. Francesca Romana and the Ontological Matter of Marrying the King of France
• Nils Renard, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Married Priests and the Discipline of the Gallican Church: a Case Study in the French Revolution

12 :30 – Lunchbreak

14:30 – Panel on the Political Issues of Marriage

• Monett Reißig, Europa-Universität Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder), “…Displeased by the Prince Elector’s Appeal and Attitude”: (Non)beautiful Bodies in Princely Marriage Negociations

• Maria Hauber, LMU München, A Double-Edged Sword: Saxonian Pricesses and the Potentials of their Sexuality (16^th century)

18:00 – Expert-Led Tour at the Musée du Louvre

• Carole Fonticelli (ÉCOLE DU LOUVRE), Charlotte Lange

Thursday 4 september

09:00 – Expert-Led Tour at the Basilica of Saint-Denis

• Théo Derory, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne ; Florence Bousquet, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne ; Romain Le Marchand, Université Paris 1 Panthéon- Sorbonne

12 :30 – Lunchbreak & Stroll at the Jardin des Tuileries

14:30 – Panel on the Mystical Marriage of St. Catherine of Siena

• Alix Buisseret, Université de Genève, Crafting St. Catherine of Siena’s Iconography at the dawn of the Renaissance
• Charlotte Lange, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, The Mystical Marriage of St. Catherine of Siena: A Praise of Female Chastity in the Work of Josefa de Obidos
• Alysée Le Druillenec, St. Catherine’s Spiritual Sister: St. Rose of Lima as Indigeneity serving post- tridentin Ecclesiology

18:00 – Expert-Led Tour at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs

• François Gilles, École Boulle, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne & Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, ENS Cachan

Friday 5 september

10:00 – Final Research Review, Workshop & Discussion

12:30 – Farewell lunch