Love Conquers All: The Erfurt Girdle as a Source for Understanding Medieval Jewish Love and Romance

Love Conquers All: The Erfurt Girdle as a Source for Understanding Medieval Jewish Love and Romance

Abstract:

Abstract The discovery of pawned objects in treasure troves attributed to Jews enables investigation of the use and understanding of these objects by Jews, especially regarding those of a more secular nature, i.e. objects that have little relationship to Jewish or Christian liturgy and that lack explicit Jewish or Christian religious iconography or inscriptions. One of these pawned objects is a girdle, which was found in a Jewish context in Erfurt. Through examining this girdle in the context of similar imagery in Jewish art, we see that Jews were not only exposed to such girdles but also were well aware of their symbolic meaning in noble love and romance .

Publisher's Version

Last updated on 08/17/2020