Edited by Alastair Minnis (NHC Fellow, 2005–06) and Rosalynn Voaden
Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2010
From the publisher’s description:
The first comprehensive survey of the major - but much neglected - contribution made by holy women to the religious culture of the later Middle Ages.
Medieval Holy Women in the Christian Tradition offers the first wide-ranging study of the remarkable women who contributed to the efflorescence of female piety and visionary experience in Europe between 1100 and 1500. This volume offers essays by prominent scholars in the field which extend the boundaries of our previous knowledge and understanding of medieval holy women. While some essays provide new perspectives on the familiar names of the unofficial canon of mulieres sanctae, many others bring into the spotlight women less familiar now, but influential in their own time and richly deserving of scholarly attention. The five general essays establish a context for understanding the issues affecting female religious witness in the later Middle Ages. The geographical arrangement of the volume allows the reader to develop an awareness of the particular cultural and religious forces in seven different regions and to recognize how these influenced the writing and reception of the holy women of that area. Seventeen major figures have essays devoted exclusively to each of them; in addition, the survey chapters on each region introduce the reader to many more. The extensive bibliographies which follow each chapter encourage further reading and study.
Alastair Minnis was Director of the Centre for Medieval Studies and Head of the Department of English at the University of York, and is currently Douglas Tracy Smith Professor of English at Yale University. A Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America and of the English Association, he is the author of six monographs and the editor or co-editor of fifteen further volumes.
Subjects
Religion / History / Christianity / Gender Studies / Women's History / Middle Ages / History of Christianity /Minnis, Alastair (NHC Fellow, 2005–06), ed. Medieval Holy Women in the Christian Tradition, c. 1100-c. 1500. Edited by Alastair Minnis and Rosalynn Voaden. Brepols Essays in European Culture. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2010.