05/09/2026
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OPEN ACCESS🏆
Women Read. Differently? Text in Women Convents from the 13th to the 15th Centuries, eds. Racha Kirakosian, Linus Möllenbrink, Meret Wüthrich (V&R Unipress, May 2026)
https://www.vr-elibrary.de/doi/book/10.14220/9783737019453
This volume challenges traditional views of women’s engagement with text in late-medieval convents, moving beyond the idea of passive reception to highlight their active and creative use of writing. It explores diverse literary activities, such as reading aloud, singing, redacting, translating, and authoring. Through detailed case studies, the contributions investigate how factors like historical developments, social shifts, communal life, and personal networks influenced women’s access to and interaction with text. The studies emphasise the fluidity of textual transmission and adaptation within convents, demonstrating that women’s text use was highly contextualized and dynamic. Ultimately, the volume seeks to diversify our understanding of readership by examining specific social and literary contexts, and questioning the essentialising of gender differences in reading practices.
CONTENTS:
Convent Women Reading. When, Where, and How? An Introduction -- Racha Kirakosian, Linus Möllenbrink, Meret Wüthrich
What Is Reading? -- Ann Marie Rasmussen
Nuns Travelling with Manuscripts. Book Transfers and Dominican Observant Reform in Fifteenth-Century Southern Germany -- Björn Klaus Buschbeck
Non-observant Nuns = Non-reading Women? Histori(ographi)cal Perspectives -- Linus Ubl
Communication with the Pen. The Epistolary Culture of Northern German Nuns. An Essay -- Eva Schlotheuber
Women’s Liturgical Reading. The Regensburg Lectionary, Collectary, and Martyrology -- Cj Jones
Reading St Catherine. Kunigund Niklasin’s Reboot of the Life and Miracles of St Catherine in Bamberg, Staatsbibliothek, Msc. Hist. 154 -- Sara S. Poor
“Reading the Fruits on the Tree of Life Planted in the Paradise of Holy Scripture.” The Use and Production of Sermons in Female Communities in the Low Countries -- Patricia Stoop
Liturgical Reading and Sermon Crafting. The Example of Umiltà da Faenza (1226–1310) -- Carolyn Muessig
Song Production as Creative Reading. Late Medieval Religious Songs by and for Women -- Almut Suerbaum
Reading Women Writing Death. Beatrice of Nazareth and the Nuns of Helfta -- Jessica Barr
„Lies und lerne!“ – Die Visionen der Guta von Günterstal als ein Beispiel für narrative Dogmatik. Mit einer Edition -- Regina D. Schiewer
„Wir fürchten niemanden.“ Neue Formen weiblicher Spiritualität im Mittelalter und die Auseinandersetzung der Adelhauser Klosterfrauen mit der geistlichen Obrigkeit -- Martina Backes
A Composite Image of a Reading Mystic. Margaret Ebner’s Revelations and Henry of Nördlingen’s Letters -- Landon Reitz
The Naked Reader. Mary Magdalene as Image of the Reading Women -- Linus Möllenbrink
Dorothea Schlegel liest Elisabeth von Nassau-Saarbrücken – oder die Frage nach interfemininer Lektüre zwischen 1450 und 1805 -- Lina Herz
