To the Glory of Her Sex: Women's Roles in the Composition of Medieval Texts

"... a beautiful landmark study which elegantly combines feminist arguments with thorough historical and literary-historical investigations." ―The Medieval Review

"I admire Joan Ferrante’s ability to balance her obvious zeal and enthusiasm for this worthwhile and timely study with an objectivity, copious methodology, and writing style... her intellectual acumen and perspicacity, and spark of creativity and imagination..." ―Envoi: A Review Journal of Medieval Literature

"Joan Ferrante has produced a stunning book, at once impeccably researched and written in smooth, clean, well-reasoned prose that is a delight to read." ―Feminist Collections

To the Glory of Her Sex presents an account of medieval women’s activities as correspondents, readers, writers, and literary patrons from antiquity through the 14th-century. These writings, discovered and examined by Joan Ferrante, represent a cross-section of virtually every field in historical and literary studies, including Latin literature, political and religious correspondence, theological and moral treatises written for women, and histories and biographies commissioned by or addressed to them.

Joan M. Ferrante, Professor of Comparative Literature at Columbia University, is the author of Woman as Image in Medieval Literature, a translation of the Lais of Marie de France with Robert Hanning, and The Political Vision of the Divine Comedy.