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Convent Chronicles: Women Writing About Women And Reform In The Late Middle Ages
Convent Chronicles Women Writing About Women And Reform In The Late Middle Ages Author:Anne Winston-Allen 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 Win... more »ston-Allen offers a rare inside look at the Observant reform movement from the womens point of view. Although we know a great deal about the men who inhabited Observant religious houses, we know very little about their female counterpartseven though women outnumbered men in many places. Often what we do know about women comes to us through the filter of mens 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 womens narratives offer an alternative perspective that challenges traditional views of womens 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 womens monasticism and religious writing.« less