Religious Women in Early Carolingian Francia : A Study of Manuscript Transmission and Monastic Culture Hardback

by Felice Lifshitz

Part of the Fordham Series in Medieval Studies series

Hardback

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Description

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 â€œbeloved,â€abbess Leoba of Tauberbischofsheim.

This is the first study of these â€œAnglo-Saxon missionaries to Germanyâ€ 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 womenâ€™s books was overwhelmingly gender-egalitarian and frequently feminist (i.e., resistant to patriarchal ideas).

This intriguing book provides unprecedented glimpses into the â€œfeminist consciousnessâ€ of the womenâ€™s and mixed-sex communities that flourished in the early Middle Ages.