A new collective volume on Friendship and Sociability in Premodern Europe: Contexts, Concepts, and Expressions, ed. Amyrose McCue Gill and Sarah Rolfe Prodan (Toronto, 2014) has just been released.

The book description reads: “Friendship and Sociability in Premodern Europe explores ideas and instances of friendship in premodern Europe through a series of investigations into amity in discrete social and cultural contexts related to some of the most salient moments and expressions of European history and civilization: the courtly love tradition, Renaissance humanism; the spread of syphilis; the Reformation, the Counter-Reformation (and the attendant confessionalization and wars of religion); Jesuit missions; the colonization of America; and, lastly, expanding trade patterns in the Age of Discovery. The essays progress thematically as well as logically with the goal of providing a panoramic view of friendship and sociability in premodern Europe rather than a comprehensive history or unified theory of premodern friendship. Each paper presents an element of novelty – a revised or adapted concept, tradition, or strategy of social and interpersonal relating in the premodern world.”

I wrote an essay entitled “‘Accompanied by a Great Number of Their Friends’: Warrior Nobles and Amitié during the French Wars of Religion,” for this volume, which grew out of a fascinating conference on friendship in medieval and early modern Europe at the University of Toronto.

For a full description see the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies website at the University of Toronto.

Download the book order form if you are interested in ordering a copy for yourself or your library. The book lists for the very reasonable price of $39.95.

Readers interested in Renaissance culture and early modern European history will be interested in this book.