virginity 727as in the present. Certain regions such as TUSCANYpro-
duced wine in bulk for sale outside the immediate region
because of its reputed high quality. Other regions pro-
duced large amounts because their climate was adequate
and they had easy access to transport by water.
The significance of the cultivation of grapes in the
Middle Ages can also be confirmed by its prominent
place in medieval art. The iconography of grapes and
vines was employed in decorative motifs and was promi-
nent in activities portrayed in calendars and landscapes.
Such biblical episodes as the wedding feast at Cana and
the drunkenness of Noah were often portrayed as sym-
bolic of Christ’s bounty and didactically represented the
dangers of drunkenness.
ATTITUDES OF JUDAISM AND ISLAMWine also played a prominent role in Jewish ritual and
religious usage, though some sects completely prohibited
its consumption. Prominent Jewish sages were some-
times vintners, and wine produced by non-Jews was gen-
erally not to be consumed or to be used in the common
rituals of CIRCUMCISIONand MARRIAGEor the PASSOVER
seder. Drinking wine or khamr made primarily from
dates, raisins, barley, or honey was prohibited in the
QURAN; but that prohibition was not always honored by
all Muslims, especially the adherents of the Hanafi
School of Islamic law.
See alsoAGRICULTURE; FOOD, DRINK AND NUTRITION.
Further reading:Edward Hyams, Dionysus: A Social
History of the Wine Vine(London: Thames and Hudson,
1965); Margery Kirkbride James, Studies in the Medieval
Wine Trade,ed. Elspeth M. Veale (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1971); Patrick E. McGovern, Stuart J. Fleming and
Solomon H. Katz, eds., The Origins and Ancient History of
Wine (Philadelphia: Gordon and Breach Publishers,
1995); P. T. H. Unwin, Wine and the Vine: An Historical
Geography of Viticulture and the Wine Trade(London:
Routledge, 1991).
Vinland and Vinland sagas Two 13th-century Ice-
landic sagas describe in slightly different ways the dis-
covery by sailors from ICELANDand GREENLANDthe land
called Vinland. Around 1000 Erik the Red’s (d. ca. 1002)
son, Leif Eriksson the Lucky (fl. early 11th century),
sailed west, where he found land and disembarked for
a short period. After Ericksson’s landing, there were
supposedly four colonizing expeditions to Vinland in
vain attempts to stay for more than a short period. The
settlers never seem to have reached any accommodation
with the native peoples they encountered there, and the
trip from Greenland was too difficult to justify any possi-
ble material gains.
The meaning of the name Vinland may refer to
grapevines or natural grassland they found there. An
actual Viking settlement, perhaps Vinland, was discovered
near L’Anse aux Meadows on the bleak northernmost tip
of the Great Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland,
Canada, by the archaeologists Helge Ingstad and Anne
Stine Ingstad. The site was excavated from 1961 to 1976
and buildings and artifacts dated securely from about
1000 were found. It seems to have been a typical Ice-
landic- or Greenlandic-style settlement for about 100 peo-
ple. The settlement appears to have been used for 20 or 25
years as a base camp for exploration of the eastern North
American coastline and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. No
graves or livestock pens were found.
See alsoSAGAS.
Further reading:Magnus Magnusson and Herman
Pálson, trans., The Vinland Sagas: The Norse Discovery of
America(London: Penguin, 1965); Herman Pálson and
Paul Edwards, trans., The Book of Settlements [Land-
námabók] (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press,
1972); Anne Stine Ingstad, The Norse Discovery of Amer-
ica,trans. Elizabeth S. Seeberg , 2 vols. (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1985).virginity The basic medieval concept and ideal of vir-
ginity were initially formed in liturgy of the early Chris-
tian religion and in the ideas of the early Christian
fathers, especially ORIGENand AUGUSTINE. Throughout
the medieval period virginity was viewed as corporeal
integrity for men and women but also was considered as
embodying a spiritual condition that reflected a funda-
mental state of being. It could be institutionally organized
and almost sacramentally consecrated. It could be, and
was, blessed and acknowledged by a promise to God. It
could be practiced by those married, theoretically also
accepted by the spouse, and those not married and living
in secular society.
From the 11th century and the GREGORIAN
REFORM, virginity was considered the chief of the moral
virtues and absolutely proper and necessary for a cleri-
cal state of life. However, it had to be practiced in a
humble manner. It meant carnal integrity or the
absence of carnal or sexual enjoyment, and the will to
abstain forever from such pleasures. In virtue it now
surpassed marital chastity and was another sign of the
higher value of the clerical state. It was a common
attribute in saints’ lives and a major, if not essential,
factor in canonization. In the secular world of the elite
in Christendom, it was expected of a bride and
reflected the honor of her family. The perpetual virgin-
ity of MARY, the Mother of God, was a major aspect of
her state of life. She had an absolute purity of spiritual
life and thus a total union with Christ, whom she had
borne. In Islam and Judaism, virginity was expected for
women at first marriage but was not much valued as a
spiritual state for human beings. Both religions had
severe laws to enforce this premarital condition, on
women in particular.