This collection addresses a complex subject: the unfolding of the institution of marriage and its transformative power from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century. In addition to an introduction and conclusion by volume editor Silvana Seidel Menchi, the book consists of eleven chapters that explore marriage within specific politico-cultural European contexts. Working largely from a combination of archival records of matrimonial trials, preserved in ecclesiastical and secular courts, and pieces of religious and civil legislation, most essays follow a chronological trajectory from the informal marriage of medieval canon law to the civil contract of the Enlightenment. The main theoretical paradigm is the tension between the theory and practice of marriage, or between “a disciplined, regulated and socially conforming marriage as formulated by jurists and theologians” and “the undisciplined marriage, which belonged to the dimension of the lived experience” (7).

Daniela Lombardi, who writes about Italy, poses the question at the heart of much scholarship on marriage: “When precisely did someone attain the status of husband or wife?” (94). According to Charles Donahue, the answer to this question lies in the law. It was between the twelve and thirteenth centuries when canonists first established a comprehensive and unified law of marriage that was sacramental by nature and that entailed monogamy, indissolubility, and the free consent of the couple. The consensual doctrine at the heart of this model permitted individual choices, allowed the young couple to circumvent parental control, and enabled marriages between people of unequal rank. But it also led to marital fluidity: premarital sex, cohabitation, concubinage, seduction and deceit, and litigations, when the promise of marriage was not fulfilled.

In the course of the sixteenth century, the legal uncertainty of informal marriage was replaced by more restrictive legal codes. The decrees of the Council of Trent and the doctrines of the new Reformed religions came to perceive this marriage model as a threat to the moral order regulating society, and to the power of the paterfamilias and the well-being of the family. Secular and religious courts, theologians and jurists, as well as public opinion participated in creating an increasingly repressive moral agenda dictated by ideas of purity, sin, and contamination. Fornication, concubinage, and clandestine marriages were restrained by new criteria defining the validity of marriage, such as the solemnity of the ritual in front of a priest, parental consent, and the presence of witnesses.

Whether viewed as sacramental or as a worldly matter, marriage became a process of negotiations and readjustments. Making a promise in secret remained a valid practice for a lawful marriage before God in Catholic Germany, the Low Countries, and Anglican England. In Italy, according to Lombardi, although a priest had to be present at the ceremony, he did not need to dispense the sacrament of marriage, which remained the exclusive domain of the couple. Illicit sexuality too came under severe scrutiny as it was declared a sin against God. But the way authorities dealt with it varied. Both Italian ecclesiastical authorities and the Dutch courts examined by Manon Van der Heijden typically ruled that sin could be erased if a marriage followed. In Sweden, Mia Korpiola finds that “the existence of engagement and cohabitation was sufficient for children to be considered legitimate” (235), and Cecilia Cristellon shows that during the eighteenth century, the French local clergy “acted as advocate” (301), requesting dispensation from the Holy Office for their Catholic parishioners who wanted to marry Protestant women, even if the Council of Trent had condemned such “mixed” marriages. Overall, the attitude of secular and religious courts toward transgressions appears flexible despite the restrictive legal norms. Women, however, and in particular unmarried women from the lower ranks, bore the brunt of punishment and loss of honor. It was not a coincidence, writes Susanna Burghartz, that the “stereotype of the disorderly, sexually profligate servant” (189) took form at this time.

This collection also highlights the limits in implementing institutional reforms. People persisted in following old traditions mainly for socioeconomic reasons. In Italy, the geographic mobility of men, particularly from lower social ranks, often led to bigamy, challenging the notion of indissoluble marriage but also permitting the creation of a new domestic union in the absence of a spouse. In both Protestant Germany and Switzerland, the upper ranks, interested in emphasizing the social position of the couple and preserving social exclusivity, violated the new rules concerning consanguinity and followed customary rituals that deviated from the prescriptions of religious authority. Even the aristocracy scorned institutionalized marriage codes, as shown by the clandestine union between the Duke of Orleans and Marguerite of Lorraine discussed by Anne Lefebvre-Teillard.

Marriage in Europe is an important book about marriage as a “many-sided phenomenon” (9). Its wide geographic scope, broad chronological investigation, and detailed examination of marriage illuminate the manifold and complex rhythms that accompanied the institutionalization of marriage and its social practices. This book is an excellent place for scholars and graduate students of early modern Europe to start exploring this important topic from a comparative perspective.