The Amorous Heart Read online

  In the private registers kept by families in New England: Laurel Ulrich, A House Full of Females: Plural Marriage and Women’s Rights in Early Mormonism, 1835–1870 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2017), 109.

  For example, the outline of a heart on a “spirit drawing”: Edward Deming Andrews and Faith Andrews, Visions of the Heavenly Sphere: A Study in Shaker Religious Art (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1969), plate XII.

  Though the practice came to an end in the 1850s: France Morin, Heavenly Visions: Shaker Gift Drawings and Gift Songs (New York: Drawing Center, 2001).

  Mormon drawings coupled the heart: Ulrich, A House Full of Females, 110 and 133.

  They also were and remain popular: See the wonderful examples in Mary Emmerling, American Country Hearts (New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1988).

  Many hearts were expressions of friendship: Marilyn Yalom with Theresa Donovan Brown, The Social Sex: A History of Female Friendship (New York: Harper Perennial, 2015), chs. 7 and 8.

  Hearts that spoke for one’s loving feelings: Robert Shaw, “United as This Heart You See: Memories of Friendship and Family,” in Expressions of Innocence and Eloquence: Selections from the Jane Katcher Collection of Americana, vol. I, ed. Jane Katcher, David A. Schorsch, and Ruth Wolfe (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006), 89.

  A few years back, when my photographer son Reid and I: Marilyn Yalom, with photographs by Reid S. Yalom, The American Resting Place: Four Hundred Years of Cemeteries and Burial Grounds (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2008).

  Chapter Seventeen: Hearts and Hands

  These words were written by a young American woman: Eliza Chaplin, Nelson Letters, 1819–1869, Essex Institute Library, Salem, Massachusetts.

  A proper church wedding usually took place: Merry E. Wiesner, Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 49.

  Petitions for annulment began with the formula: Ann Rosalind Jones, “Heterosexuality: A Beast with Many Backs,” in A Cultural History of Sexuality in the Renaissance, ed. Bette Talvacchia (Oxford and New York: Berg, 2011), 46.

  This trend can be seen in the history of “Lonely Hearts” ads: Francesca Beauman, Shapely Ankle Preferred: A History of the Lonely Hearts Ads, 1695–2010 (London: Chatto and Windus, 2011), citations from 26–29.

  Intelligence, wit, kindness, compassion, and mutual respect: Helena Kelly, Jane Austen: The Secret Radical (New York: Knopf, 2017), ch. 4.

  Insofar as children were concerned, their legal custody: Yalom, A History of the Wife, 185–191.

  “Man for the field and woman for the hearth”: See discussion in Erna Olafson Hellerstein, Leslie Parker Hume, and Karen M. Offen, eds., Victorian Women: A Documentary Account of Women’s Lives in Nineteenth-Century England, France, and the United States (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1981), 118.

  Chapter Eighteen: Romanticism, or the Reign of the Heart

  Sir Walter Scott maintained that its creator: “Don Juan,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Juan.

  In her fiction, as in her life, Sand sought: For a more complete discussion of Sand and love, see Marilyn Yalom, How the French Invented Love: Nine Hundred Years of Passion and Romance (New York: Harper Perennial, 2012), 195–217.

  French stories of adultery have a very long history: Didier Lett, “Marriage et amour au Moyen Age,” Le Monde: Histoire et Civilisations, no. 15 (March 2016): 2.

  In a letter to Lewes dated November 6, 1847: E. C. Gaskell, The Life of Charlotte Brontë, vol. II (London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1857), 43.

  In a subsequent letter to Lewes dated January 12, 1848: This and the following quotations from Gaskell, The Life of Charlotte Brontë, vol. II, 54–55.

  Chapter Nineteen: Valentines

  The French claim Oton de Grandson’s: Nathalie Koble, Drôles de Valentines: La tradition poétique de la Saint-Valentin du Moyen Age à aujourd’hui (Paris: Héros-Limite, 2016), 266; Jack B. Oruch, “St. Valentine, Chaucer, and Spring in February,” Speculum 56, no. 3 (July 1981): 534–565.

  All of this was supposed to have taken place: Charity Cannon Willard, Christine de Pizan: Her Life and Works (New York: Persea Books, 1984), 167–168.

  “This year the men and women who are”: Charles d’Orléans, Poésies, vol. I, ed. Pierre Champion (Paris: Honoré Champion Editeur, 2010), Ballade LXVI, 128–129 (my translations here and the following).

  “in the name of Love / They organized a big festival”: Ibid., Complainte IV, 281.

  Several of Charles’s poems begin by invoking: Charles d’Orléans, Ballades et Rondeaux, ed. Jean-Claude Mühlethaler (Paris: Livre de Poche, 1992), Rondeau 50, 430.

  There are even pictures of this Saint Valentine’s Day event: Koble, Drôles de Valentines, 273.

  In a priggish novel that mixed fact and fiction: Jean-Pierre Camus, Diotrephe, or An historie of valentines, trans. Susan du Verger (1641).

  Elizabeth’s letter to John on February 10, 1477: The relevant letters from Elizabeth Brews and Margery Brews to John Paston III are found in Norman Davis, ed., The Paston Letters: A Selection in Modern Spelling (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1963), 233–235.

  Valentine’s Day was not a one-day affair: Samuel Pepys, The Diary of Samuel Pepys, vol. II, ed. Robert Latham and William Matthews (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1970), 36 and 38.

  Some contained complicated puzzles, acrostics, and rebuses: Several fine American examples are reproduced in Ruth Webb Lee, A History of Valentines (New York and London: Studio Publications, 1952), 8–38.

  Even if the valentine was only a copy of his text: Barry Shank, A Token of My Affection: Greeting Cards and American Business Culture (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004), 34–35.

  Emily remarked that one instructor: Emily Dickinson, The Letters of Emily Dickinson, vol. I (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1965), 63, emphasis original.

  They sold for no less than $5 each: Webb Lee, A History of Valentines, 51–75.

  One titled “Cupid in Ambush” pictured Cupid: Debra N. Mancoff, Love’s Messenger: Tokens of Affection in the Victorian Age (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1997), 20–21.

  There were specialized cards for different trades and professions: Webb Lee, A History of Valentines, 124.

  The directive specifically targeted “boxes and cards”: “Valentine’s Day,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine%27s_Day.

  Chapter Twenty: I U

  When queried in a 2010 interview: Ilka Skobie, “Lone Wolf: An Interview with Jim Dine,” ArtNet, www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/scobie/jim-dine6-28-10.asp.

  For a 2015 retrospective of his work in Los Angeles: Jonathan Novak, “A Retrospective Delves into Jim Dine’s Hearts and Other Iconic Symbols,” Artsy Editorial, February 4, 2015, www.artsy.net/article/editorial-a-retrospective-delves-into-jim-dines-hearts.

  In 1999 the Japanese provider NTT DoCoMo released: Amanda Hess, “Look Who’s Smiley Now,” New York Times, October 27, 2016, C1.

  Discovering the heart shape in nature has prompted: The Power of the Heart (movie), www.thepoweroftheheart.com, and Steve Casimiro, “25 Awesome Hearts Found in Nature,” Adventure Journal, February 4, 2011, www.adventure-journal.com/2011/02/25-awesome-hearts-found-in-nature.

  A site founded by Ellen Huerta that specializes: Sophia Kercher, “Modern Help for the Brokenhearted? It’s Online,” New York Times, February 2, 2017, D3.

  Index

  Abélard, Peter, 44–45

  adultery and infidelity

  Bellini’s Norma, 191–192

  Dante’s Francesca da Rimini, 73–74

  fidelity in medieval storytelling, 47–50

  French novels, 197

  medieval storytelling, 48–49

  Roman view of, 15–16

  Valentine’s Day as vice-laden holiday, 210–211

  Victor Hugo, 195–196

  Aeschylus, 17

  Alacoque, Margaret Mary, 134

  Albertus Magnus, 54


  Alciato, Andrea, 117

  Alexander the Great, 84–85

  Alexandre de Bernay, 84

  Alfred the Englishman, 150–151

  allegory, 52–58

  amorous love, 2

  Cartesian view of, 156–157

  contrasting with lust in erotic literature, 168–169

  Dante’s preoccupation with, 73–74

  Dutch emblem books, 118–123

  Egyptians’ view of the heart, 3

  eighteenth-century English novels, 161–166

  graphic and verbal hearts, 224–225

  in medieval European literature, 44–47

  in medieval German literature, 50–52

  medieval allegories, 52–54

  Renaissance art, 115–116

  The Romance of the Pear, 52–54

  the heart in dialogue with lover, 106–108

  the Romantics’ view of the heart, 201–202

  theological virtue of caritas and, 74–75

  See also sensual love

  Amorum Emblemata (Emblems of Love), 118–121

  anatomy, 151–152. See also heart, anatomical

  Anne de Bretagne, 99

  annulment, 182–183

  Anselm of Canterbury (saint), 61, 64

  Antiochus (king), 8

  Antony and Cleopatra (Shakespeare), 139, 141–142, 145

  Aphrodite, 7–8

  apocalypse, 27–28

  Apollonius, 8–9

  Aquinas, Thomas (saint), 74

  Arab culture

  bards’ recitals of love poems, 19–20

  Ibn Hazm’s On Love and Lovers, 23–24

  Japanese characters for love and heart, 6

  legendary lovers, 21–22

  refined view of women in poetry, 41

  sexual love in poetry, 19–21

  Aristotle, 9

  situating the immortal soul in the human body, 156

  the function of the heart, 150

  art. See graphic arts

  L’Art de jouir (The Art of Pleasure) (La Mettrie), 169

  Art of Love (Ovid), 12–13, 16

  Arthurian romances, 45–47, 49–50

  Assisi fresco, 79–82

  Assumption of the Virgin (Tegliacci), 81, 82(fig.)

  al-Aswad Bin Yafur, 20

  Atelier du Maître de Bari, 43(fig.)

  Augustine (saint), 4–5

  Augustus (emperor), 16

  Austen, Jane, 184–186, 197, 199–200

  Austria: heart burials of Hapsburgs, 101–102

  Avicenna, 54

  Baldini, Baccio, 91–92

  baptismal certificates, 172–173

  da Barberino, Francesco, 76–77, 79–80, 79(fig.), 81

  Bartoli, Cecilia, 189

  Batten, William, 212–213

  Beatus of Liébana, 27–30

  Bedouins, 19–22

  Bellini, Vincenzo, 189–192

  Bernard of Clairvaux (saint), 5

  Bernart de Ventadorn, 34

  birds, association with Valentine’s Day, 207–209

  birth records, 172–173

  Blackstone, William, 187

  Blanche de Castille, 97

  Blondel de Nesle, 37

  Bodleian Library, Oxford University, 84

  Boel, Cornelius, 113(fig.), 119

  Boissard, Jean Jacques, 121–123

  Bondone, Giotto di, 69(fig.)

  Book of Hours, 68

  The Book of Special Grace (Liber specialis gratiae), 62

  Book of the Dead, 2–3

  Book of the Heart (Jager), 158

  Boswell, Samuel, 160–161

  brain

  addictive nature of love, 224–225

  gendered division of the male brain and the female heart, 188, 201

  Pascal separating heart and brain functions, 157

  the heart and the brain as the source of love, 154–155

  Brews, Margery, 211–212

  The Bride of Lammermoor (Scott), 194–195

  Bridget of Sweden (saint), 66

  Brontë, Anne, 198

  Brontë, Charlotte, 187, 197–200

  Brontë, Emily, 198, 200

  Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 200–202

  Browning, Robert, 200

  Brulé, Gace, 35–36

  Bullioud, Marguerite, 89–90

  burial of the heart, 95–97

  burial of Richard I’s heart, 95–96

  distribution of James II’s heart and entrails, 100–101

  heart burials among clergyman, 102

  heart burials among Ottoman Turks, 102–103

  heart burials of Austria’s Hapsburgs, 101–102

  heart burials of French kings and queens, 96–100

  Buthayna, 22

  Byron, George Gordon, Lord, 192–194, 201

  Calvinism, 127

  Camus, Jean-Pierre, 210–211

  cannibalism, 72–73

  Canterbury Tales (Chaucer), 88

  Capellanus, Andreas, 47–49

  Caritas (Bondone), 69(fig.)

  caritas (Christian love of humankind), 5, 73–76

  Caritas (Giotto), 75

  Carmina Burana, 39

  Catherine of Siena (saint), 65–66

  Catholicism

  Counter-Reformation, 131–132

  discouraging sensual love, 60

  emblem books, 129–130

  love as a prerequisite to marriage, 181–183

  religious passion, 132–135

  See also Christianity; religion and religious life

  Catullus, 9–11, 15, 118

  Champagne, Thibaut de, 36

  Chaplin, Eliza, 179–181

  charity, 74–75. See also caritas

  Charles d’Anjou, 97

  Charles d’Orléans, 106–108, 208–210

  Charles V of France, 97–98

  Charles VII of France, 98

  Charles VIII of France, 98–99

  Chaucer, Geoffrey, 88, 207–209, 211

  children

  fear of bastard offspring, 48

  foundlings, 159–160, 159(fig.)

  illegitimate, 109

  Choderlos de Laclos, Pierre, 167–168

  Chopin, Frédéric, 196

  Chrétien de Troyes, 45–47, 49, 138

  Christianity

  caritas, 74–75

  Christian emblems and devices, 127–129, 128(fig.)

  The Commentary on the Apocalypse, 27–28

  exchanging hearts with Jesus, 60–68

  Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, 28–30

  handfasting as betrothal ritual, 180–181

  heart burials among clergyman, 102

  Immaculate Heart of Mary, 66–68

  marriage liturgy on the ring finger, 14

  Martin Luther’s theological symbols, 126–127

  medieval Christians’ secular and religious love, 4–6

  medieval views of the function of the human heart, 150–151

  Mozarabs, 28

  notions of feminine virtue, 162

  parents choosing their daughters’ husbands, 163–165

  passion of Teresa of Ávila (saint), 132–133

  Pennsylvania Dutch baptismal certificates, 172–173

  Reformation destruction of Catholic symbols and images, 126–127

  The Romance of the Pear, 53

  Sacred Heart of Jesus, 61, 65–68, 130–132, 134–135

  See also Catholicism; Protestantism; religion and religious life

  Christine de Pizan, 58, 208–210

  Church of Latter Day Saints (LDS), 175–176

  Cicero, 15

  Cimabue, 77

  Cimerlino, Giovanni, 116, 116(fig.)

  Claddagh symbol, 183–184

  Clanvowe, John, 208

  Clarissa: or The History of a Young Lady (Richardson), 161, 163–167

  clasped hands, 179–181

  Cleland, John, 168

  Cligès (Chrétien), 45–47, 49

  Clodia, 10

  Codex Mane
sse, 33(fig.), 39

  Le Coeur Admirable de la Très Sainte Mère de Dieu (The Admirable Heart of the Very Saintly Mother of God), 135

  Colditz altarpiece, 127

  Commentaries on the Laws of England (Blackstone), 187

  The Commentary on the Apocalypse, 27–28

  “Complaint of Mars” (Chaucer), 207–208

  “Complaints” (Orléans), 209–210

  Confessions (Augustine), 4–5

  consciousness, 155

  corazón (heart), 133

  cordiform maps, 115–116, 116(fig.)

  Council of Trent (1545), 131–132

  Counter-Reformation, 131–132

  courtly love

  doctrine of refined love, 4–5

  European fin’ amor, 34–37

  history of Valentine’s Day, 207

  legendary lovers in Arab culture, 21–22

  Sassanian empire, 26–27

  Cramer, Daniel, 129

  Cranach, Lucas the Younger, 127

  “cruel love” concept, 90–91

  Crusades, 50, 96–97

  Cupid/Eros, 113(fig.)

  as dangerous, inhuman force, 8–9, 118

  in Barberino’s Documenti, 77–80

  in emblem books, 117, 119–121, 123

  Renaissance depictions of Venus and, 114–115

  women’s hearts and desires, 12

  currency, heart icon on, 10(fig.)

  Cyrene, Libya, 10–11, 25–26

  Daniel, Arnaud, 35

  Dante, 13, 70–74

  De humani corporis fabrica (The Fabric of the Human Body) (Vesalius), 151–153

  death

  heart burial of Richard I, 95

  heart burials of French kings and queens, 96–100

  portrayal of Cupid and, 117

  Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde, 202–204

  Defoe, Daniel, 168

  Descartes, René, 155–156

  Dickinson, Emily, 214–215

  Die, Countess de, 35

  digital technology: emoji, 222–224

  Dine, Jim, 221–222

  Discalced Carmelites, order of, 132–133

  dissection of the human body, 151–152

  Le Dit de la Rose (The Tale of the Rose) (Pizan), 208

  Divine Comedy (Dante), 73–74

  divorce, 15, 181

  Documenti d’Amore (Barberino), 77, 79(fig.)

  Donizetti, Gaetano, 194–195

  drinking songs, 39

  drinking vessels, 25–27, 26(fig.)

  Drouet, Juliette, 195–196

  dualism, Cartesian, 155–156