“There is no book now available that makes the arguments that Rollo is advancing with anything near the force of Kiss My Relics. Through it, one is introduced to complex but rewarding arguments about language theory and representation and the interplay between Latin and the vernacular, England and the continent, and religious and pagan literary traditions. I would make Kiss My Relics compulsory reading for students and scholars of medieval intellectual history as well as those in French, English, and Medieval Latin literature.”

“Kiss My Relics pulls off the rather unusual feat of being at one and the same time profoundly learned and yet absolutely hilarious. David Rollo blows the dust off the question of the Romance of the Rose’s relation to its Latin sources to show just how deeply invested medieval culture had from the outset been in a theory of poetic language that allied it with perverse sexual practices, bodily pleasure, and indeterminacy. Kiss My Relics foregrounds the wicked humor and sophisticated playfulness of the Romance of the Rose and its legacy, but it is also a witty and compelling demonstration of just how subversive and playful medieval literary culture could be.”