Decretals of Gregory IX

c. 1300
This manuscript includes an illustration of what the creator considered a typical wedding at the time. Although this image does not depict an elite marriage, high status owners likely constituted a significant portion of the intended audience for the manuscript itself as a very costly product to make.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Connection to Website Themes

Spousal Power Dyanmics: In this wedding scene, the bride and groom mirror each other in position and form. This implies an equality and underlines the importance of the consent of each party to the betrothal.

Community Social Norms: The symmetrical treatment given to the portrayals of the bride’s party and the groom’s party indicates that in late medieval society an equal status between the two formed the ideal situation.

Church and State: As a product of ecclesiastical authorities, unsurprisingly this depiction of marriage centers the role of the religious authority figure in the marriage ceremony. The priest, whose tonsure indicates membership in a particular religious order, occupies the direct center of the image and also the center of the top half of the manuscript leaf. This image serves to communicate the Church’s stance that it authorized and regulated marriages.

What is Love: This portrayal of marriage reveals nothing about the affective history of the bride and groom. Here, the two undergo an almost emotionless exercise. The creator of the image probably intended to present the bride and groom as willing participants in the ceremony but their crossed arms raise the possibility of a certain reluctance.