Nuns Making Liturgical Books
Women’s Agency, Gender, and Reform in the Portuguese Dominican Nunneries (15th-16th centuries)
Hardback (Forthcoming)
(March 2027)
ISBN: 9782503616162
Price: $107.00
When analysed within their context of production, and in conjuction with other surviving sources, the manuscripts from the Observant Dominican convents of Portugal reveal new information on the nuns’ education, identity and communal memory, evincing how these were interrelated with the reformist environment in which these convents originated.
Nuns Making Liturgical Books examines how Portuguese Dominican nuns exercised agency and expressed religious authority through the production, commissioning, and use of liturgical books. Rather than treating these volumes as mere repositories of text, this study considers their materiality, context of production, and functionality, approaching them as tangible evidence of the women who created and used them. Although these books were largely modelled on the Dominican order’s official liturgy—reflecting the reformist environment in which these convents were established—a contextual analysis alongside contemporary sources demonstrates that they were equally shaped by the specific needs and circumstances of their communities. Portuguese Dominican nuns commissioned, copied, and illuminated liturgical books for their convents, occasionally recording their names and roles in colophons. Analysing their textual and visual choices alongside their actual liturgical practice, and comparing them with those of their male counterparts, reveals how gender informed these women’s cultural production, and how these choices served as active strategies to advance religious reform, shape communal identities, and assert religious authority.
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