“Anne
Winston-Allen sheds a bright light on such an era [of reform] in
Convent Chronicles: Women Writing about Women and Reform in
the Late Middle Ages. She takes the reader beyond the few well-known
writers of a mostly earlier time, such as Hildegard of Bingen, to
explore the writings of many women whose lives were influential
in ways large and small.” —Judith Sutera, National
Catholic Reporter
“Convent
Chronicles contributes much that is new to the debate about
the roles and agency of women in the Middle Ages. While on the surface
this seems to be a book about one particular group of women, the
questions it tackles (and answers) are extremely significant and
will influence coming generations of scholarship. Winston-Allen’s
findings demonstrate how much we can learn that challenges both
the old-fashioned notion that there were no or too few sources on
women as well as some feminist scholarship that has insisted on
the victimization of women.” —Larissa Taylor, Colby
College
The late Middle Ages was a time of intense religious ferment in
Europe marked by countless calls for reform of the Church. Within
monastic orders, the Observant movement was one such effort to reform
religious houses, sparked by the widespread fear that these houses
had strayed too far from their original calling. In Convent
Chronicles, Anne Winston-Allen offers a rare inside look at
the Observant reform movement from the women’s point of view.
Although we know a great deal about the men who inhabited Observant
religious houses, we know very little about their female counterparts—even
though women outnumbered men in many places. Often what we do know
about women comes to us through the filter of men’s accounts.
Recovering long-overlooked writings by women in the fifteenth and
early sixteenth centuries, Winston-Allen surveys the extraordinary
literary and scribal activities in German- and Dutch-speaking religious
communities in Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and the Low Countries.
While previous studies have relied on records left by male activists,
these women’s narratives offer an alternative perspective
that challenges traditional views of women’s role and agency.
Women were, in fact, active participants in the religious conversations
that dominated the day.
With its rich depiction of women as transmitters of culture, Convent
Chronicles will be invaluable to scholars as well as to graduate
and undergraduate students interested in the history of women’s
monasticism and religious writing. |
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