Queer Intimacies in Goscelin of St. Bertin's Liber confortatorius (ca. 1080–1082)

Abstract

I n t h e P r o l o g u e t o h I s v e r y long and strange letter, the Liber confortatorius, Goscelin of St. Bertin warns away licentious readers. After insisting that the letter contains only “virginal simplicity and pure love,”1 Goscelin’s language turns apotropaic: “May the whisperer of scandal, the lecherous eye, the pointing finger, the spewer of hot air, and the dirty snickerer be far from this pure encounter.”2 He had good reason to worry. Despite their ostensibly private nature, medieval letters were in fact highly public documents, often reaching audiences far larger than the individual