Women in the Medieval Monastic World

Edited by Janet E Burton Edited by Karen Stober

Book cover: Women in the Medieval Monastic World

Extent: 377 pages

Publisher: Brepols Publishers

Subjects: Medieval Studies, Religious Studies

Series: Medieval Monastic Studies

Series volume number: 1

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(September 2015)

ISBN: 9782503553085

Price: $138.00

In stock

This international and interdisciplinary collection discusses a wide range of aspects relating to the lives of women in religious communities across medieval Europe


There has long been a tendency among monastic historians to ignore or marginalize female participation in monastic life, but recent scholarship has begun to redress the balance, and the great contributions made by women to the religious life of the Middle Ages are now attracting increasing attention. This interdisciplinary volume draws together scholars from Spain, Italy, France, the Low Countries, Germany, Transylvania, Scandinavia, and the British Isles, and offers new insights into the history, art history, and material culture, and the religiosity and culture of medieval religious women. The different chapters within this book take a comparative approach to the emergence and spread of female monastic communities across different geographical, political, and economic settings, comparing and contrasting houses that ranged from rich, powerful royal abbeys to small, subsistence priories on the margins of society, and exploring the artistic achievements, the interaction with neighbours and secular and ecclesiastical authorities, and the spiritual lives that were led by their inhabitants. The contributors to this volume address issues as diverse as patronage and relationships with the outside world, organizational structures, the nature of Cistercian observance and identity among female houses, and the role of male authority, and in doing so, they seek to shed light on the divergences and commonalities upon which the female religious life was based.

  • Edited by Janet E Burton
  • Edited by Karen Stober