Medieval Women

Author: Deirdre Jackson
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780712358651
Category : Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Our understanding of the lives and roles of medieval women has changed dramatically in recent years. Far from being background characters of the middle ages, women often wielded an influence beyond their expected station. Many women fortunate enough to receive an education became patrons of literature, particularly secular tales of adventure and romance. Some bold pioneers became writers themselves. Others commissioned, or had dedicated to them, the earliest historical chronicles, bestiaries, and treatises on healthcare and military prowess. This book celebrates the importance that women across Europe assigned to reading and literature, and the many ways women advanced medieval culture.

Uppity Women of Medieval Times

Author: Vicki León
Publisher: Conari Press
ISBN: 9781573240390
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 268

Book Description
This guide to the feisty women of medieval times profiles 200 of these fair and unfair damsels from around the world. There's English rose Hilda of Whitby, Viking leader Aud the Deep-Minded and Wu Zhao of China, who chose to concubine, connive, murder and machiavelli her way to a 50 year reign.

Women's Lives in Medieval Europe

Author: Emilie Amt
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134720602
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 296

Book Description
Praise for the first edition: 'It is difficult to imagine another book in which one could find all this diverse material, and no doubt Amt's collection, in its richness, and in its genuine clarity and simplicity will takes prominent place in our expanded, diversified medieval curriculum, a curriculum that takes class, gender, and ethnicity as central to an understanding of world cultural history.' - The Medieval Review Long considered to be a definitive and truly groundbreaking collection of sources, Women’s Lives in Medieval Europe uniquely presents the everyday lives and experiences of women in the Middle Ages. This indispensible text has now been thoroughly updated and expanded to reflect new research, and includes previously unavailable source material. This new edition includes expanded sections on marriage and sexuality, and on peasant women and townswomen, as well as a new section on women and the law. There are brief introductions both to the period and to the individual documents, study questions to accompany each reading, a glossary of terms and a fully updated bibliography. Working within a multi-cultural framework, the book focuses not just on the Christian majority, but also present material about women in minority groups in Europe, such as Jews, Muslims, and those considered to be heretics. Incorporating both the laws, regulations and religious texts that shaped the way women lived their lives, and personal narratives by and about medieval women, the book is unique in examining women’s lives through the lens of daily activities, and in doing so as far as possible through the voices of women themselves.

Women in Medieval Society

Author: Susan Mosher Stuard
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 081220767X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 229

Book Description
Early medieval women exercised public roles, rights, and responsibilities. Women contributed through their labor to the welfare of the community. Women played an important part in public affairs. They practiced birth control through abortion and infanticide. Women committed crimes and were indicted. They owned property and administered estates. The drive toward economic growth and expansion abroad rested on the capacity of women to staff and manage economic endeavors at home. In the later Middle Ages, the social position of women altered significantly, and the reasons why the role of women in society tended to become more restrictive are examined in these essays.

A Medieval Woman's Companion

Author: Susan Signe Morrison
Publisher: Oxbow Books
ISBN: 1785700804
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 281

Book Description
What have a deaf nun, the mother of the first baby born to Europeans in North America, and a condemned heretic to do with one another? They are among the virtuous virgins, marvelous maidens, and fierce feminists of the Middle Ages who trail-blazed paths for women today. Without those first courageous souls who worked in fields dominated by men, women might not have the presence they currently do in professions such as education, the law, and literature. Focusing on women from Western Europe between c. 300 and 1500 CE in the medieval period and richly carpeted with detail, A Medieval Woman’s Companion offers a wealth of information about real medieval women who are now considered vital for understanding the Middle Ages in a full and nuanced way. Short biographies of 20 medieval women illustrate how they have anticipated and shaped current concerns, including access to education; creative emotional outlets such as art, theater, romantic fiction, and music; marriage and marital rights; fertility, pregnancy, childbirth, contraception and gynecology; sex trafficking and sexual violence; the balance of work and family; faith; and disability. Their legacy abides until today in attitudes to contemporary women that have their roots in the medieval period. The final chapter suggests how 20th and 21st century feminist and gender theories can be applied to and complicated by medieval women's lives and writings. Doubly marginalized due to gender and the remoteness of the time period, medieval women’s accomplishments are acknowledged and presented in a way that readers can appreciate and find inspiring. Ideal for high school and college classroom use in courses ranging from history and literature to women's and gender studies, an accompanying website with educational links, images, downloadable curriculum guide, and interactive blog will be made available at the time of publication.

Medieval Women

Author: Eileen Power
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107650151
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 137

Book Description
An accessible and clear snapshot of the life and work of women in medieval times from the nunnery to the town to the castle.

Illuminating Women in the Medieval World

Author: Christine Sciacca
Publisher: Getty Publications
ISBN: 1606065262
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 124

Book Description
When one thinks of women in the Middle Ages, the images that often come to mind are those of damsels in distress, mystics in convents, female laborers in the field, and even women of ill repute. In reality, however, medieval conceptions of womanhood were multifaceted, and women’s roles were varied and nuanced. Female stereotypes existed in the medieval world, but so too did women of power and influence. The pages of illuminated manuscripts reveal to us the many facets of medieval womanhood and slices of medieval life—from preoccupations with biblical heroines and saints to courtship, childbirth, and motherhood. While men dominated artistic production, this volume demonstrates the ways in which female artists, authors, and patrons were instrumental in the creation of illuminated manuscripts. Featuring over one hundred illuminations depicting medieval women from England to Ethiopia, this book provides a lively and accessible introduction to the lives of women in the medieval world.

Women and Power in the Middle Ages

Author: Mary Erler
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
ISBN: 0820323810
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 293

Book Description
Power in medieval society has traditionally been ascribed to figures of public authority--violent knights and conflicting sovereigns who altered the surface of civic life through the exercise of law and force. The wives and consorts of these powerful men have generally been viewed as decorative attendants, while common women were presumed to have had no power or consequence. Reassessing the conventional definition of power that has shaped such portrayals, Women and Power in the Middle Ages reveals the varied manifestations of female power in the medieval household and community--from the cultural power wielded by the wives of Venetian patriarchs to the economic power of English peasant women and the religious power of female saints. Among the specific topics addresses are Griselda's manipulation of silence as power in Chaucer's "The Clerk's Tale"; the extensive networks of influence devised by Lady Honor Lisle; and the role of medieval women book owners as arbiters of lay piety and ambassadors of culture. In every case, the essays seek to transcend simple polarities of public and private, male and female, in order to provide a more realistic analysis of the workings of power in feudal society.

Women and Gender in Medieval Europe

Author: Margaret Schaus
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 0415969441
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 986

Book Description
Publisher description

Medieval Women in Their Communities

Author: Diane Watt
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 9780802081223
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 268

Book Description
Ten interdisciplinary essays provide detailed, small-scale studies of a variety of medieval female communities from Germany to Wales between 1200 and 1500, examining a range of social, economic, and cultural groups, both religious and secular.