Religious Women in Early Carolingian Francia: A Study of Manuscript Transmission and Monastic Culture (Fordham Series in Medieval Studies) - Hardcover

Lifshitz, Felice

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0823256871 ISBN 13: 9780823256877

Publisher: Fordham University Press, 2014

Synopsis

Religious Women in Early Carolingian Francia, a groundbreaking study of the intellectual and monastic culture of the Main Valley during the eighth century, looks closely at a group of manuscripts associated with some of the best-known personalities of the European Middle Ages, including Boniface of Mainz and his “beloved,”abbess Leoba of Tauberbischofsheim. This is the first study of these “Anglo-Saxon missionaries to Germany” to delve into the details of their lives by studying the manuscripts that were produced in their scriptoria and used in their communities. The author explores how one group of religious women helped to shape the culture of medieval Europe through the texts they wrote and copied, as well as through their editorial interventions.
Using compelling manuscript evidence, she argues that the content of the women’s books was overwhelmingly gender-egalitarian and frequently feminist (i.e., resistant to patriarchal ideas). This intriguing book provides unprecedented glimpses into the “feminist consciousness” of the women’s and mixed-sex communities that flourished in the early Middle Ages.

About this title

Book Description

Based on a group of eighth-century manuscripts, this captivating book offers an exhilarating new understanding of the role of religious women in the early Middle Ages.

About the Author

Felice Lifshitz is Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies and of Religious Studies at the University of Alberta.

Edition details

• Publisher: Fordham University Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0823256871
• ISBN 13: 9780823256877
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 368