LIS 407: Women in the Middle Ages Pathfinder, Beatley Library

A Pathfinder to Sources in Beatley Library, Simmons College Boston, MA

Scope/Content

This pathfinder provides a guide to resources at Beatley library that will assist in research into the lives of women during the middle ages. The medieval era is generally considered to stretch from 450 CE - 1500 CE, and to include regions from the Middle East to Scandinavia. This is a vast span of time and space, and these centuries saw the formation of modern Europe, the birth of Islam, the rise of Christianity, and the first European exploration of America, and women played a role in all of these events. It is impossible to truly represent all of the aspects of this time period, but this pathfinder may give you a good start.

Subject Headings

Women -- History -- Middle Ages, 500-1500 Women -- History -- Middle Ages Women in literature -- History Women and literature -- Europe -- History -- To 1500. Literature, Medieval -- Women authors -- History and criticism. Library of Congress Classification Numbers

History -- General (Medieval): D101-D203 History -- Britain (Medieval): DA129-260 Religion -- Christianity (Medieval): BR160-275 Women -- Feminism: HQ1101-2030 Literature -- General (Medieval): PN661-694 Literature -- French (Medieval): PQ151-221 Literature -- English (Anglo-Saxon & Medieval): PR171-369; PR 1490-2165 Literature -- English (Women Authors): PR111-116 Literature -- German (Old Norse): PT7101-7338

Introductory Sources

Adamson, Lynda G. (editor). (1998). Notable Women in World History: A Guide to Recommended Biographies and Autobiographies. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. CALL NUMBER: REF CT3230 .A28 1998

Buck, Claire (editor). (1992). The Bloomsbury Guide to Women's Literature. New York, NY: Prentice Hall General Reference. CALL NUMBER: REF PN471 .B57 1992

The first half of the book is comprised of essays on different regions and time periods. The essays on "Medieval Britain" and "France: The Middle Ages to 1700" are especially relevant, and the more general essays on Germany, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Scandinavia, and the Arab Middle East are also useful.

Gies, Frances and Joseph. (1980). Women in the Middle Ages. New York : Barnes & Noble. CALL NUMBER: HQ1143 .G53 1980

Greenspan, Karen (editor). (1994). The Timetables of Women's History: A Chronology of the Most Important People and Events in Women's History. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. CALL NUMBER: REF HQ1121 .G74 1994

Contains essays on women and early Christianity, art, marriage, employment, war, Islam, witchcraft, and monarchy, as well as biographical pieces on Hypatia of Alexandria, Galla Placidia, Anna Comnena, Hildegard of Bingen, Margery Ke,pe, and Christine de Pizan.

Smith, Bonnie G. (2008). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. 4 volumes. CALL NUMBER: REF HQ1121 .093 2008

Williams, Marty and Anne Echols. (1994). Between Pit and Pedestal: Women in the Middle Ages. Princeton, NJ: Marcus Wiener Publishers. CALL NUMBER: HQ1143 .W55 1994

Wilson, Katharina M. and Nadia Margolis (editors). (2004). Women in the Middle Ages: An Encyclopedia. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. BOSTON UNIV. CALL NUMBER: REF HQ1143 .W643 2004

General Online Sources Internet Medieval Sourcebook (Fordham University).

Enormous collection of primary sources from the medieval era, either in the public domain or by permission from their translators. Most sections are organized by time period and region, but there is also a section on Gender & Sexuality. Resources about women will be scattered throughout the other sections.

The Labyrinth (Georgetown University).

A collection of online resources on a variety of topics in medieval history. Check out the sections on Women and Gender & Sexuality, but other topics might yield interesting information too.

NetSERF (Catholic University of America).

A collection of online sources organized by topic. Also contains a list a blogs, organizations, and mailing lists.

Medievalists.Net.

A blog which posts about new articles, publications, news items, and research about the middle ages. All posts are tagged. Check out the tag for Women's Studies.

Online Databases

*Simmons log on is required to access

Project MUSE

A scholarly research database for the Social Sciences. Searches for "medieval women" and "women" + "middle ages" turns up many hits, of articles as well as reviews of some of the books included in this pathfinder.

MLA Bibliography

Database sponsored by the Modern Language Association which provides citations to scholarly articles in the fields of literature, language studies, and cultural studies.

Historical Abstracts

This database, run by EBSCOhost, can help you find citations of scholarly articles on more historical topics. Furthermore it is focused on world history excluding US history, which makes it even more appropriate for researching the middle ages.

Arts & Humanities Citation Index

A truly extensive database with articles from a broad range of fields. Regional Sources

Blain, Virginia. (1990). The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. CALL NUMBER: REF PR111 .B57 1990

Fell, Christine. (1987). Women in Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell Ltd. CALL NUMBER: HQ1147 .G7 F44 1987

Jewell, Helen. (1996). Women in Medieval England. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press. CALL NUMBER: HQ1147 .G7 J68 1996

Jochens, Jenny. (1995). Women in Old Norse Society. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. CALL NUMBER: HQ1147 .N8 J63 1995

Leyser, Henrietta. (1995). Medieval Women: A Social History of Women in England, 450- 1500. New York City, NY: St. Martin's Press. CALL NUMBER: HQ1147 .G7 L496 1995

Phillips, Kim M. (2003). Medieval Maidens: Young Women and Gender in England, 1270- 1540. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press. CALL NUMBER: HW1147 .E6 P55 2003

Sartori, Eva Martin and Dorothy Wynne Zimmerman (editors). (1991). French Women Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Source Book. New York, NY: Greenwood Press. CALL NUMBER: REF PO149 .F73 1991

Contains entries on Christine de Pizan, Marguerite de Navarre, Marie de France, and female troubadours. Each entry contains a very useful bibliography of other sources on each author/topic.

Women's Roles in Medieval Society

Adams, Carol, Paula Bartley, Hilary Bourdillon, and Cathy Loxton. (1990). From Workshop to Warfare: The Lives of Medieval Women. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. CALL NUMBER: HQ1143 .F76 1990

Carlson, Cindy L. and Angela Jane Weisl (editors). (1999). Constructions of Widowhood and Virginity in the Middle Ages. The New Middle Ages. New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan. CALL NUMBER: PN682 .W6 C66 1999

Erler, Mary and Maryanne Kowaleski (editors). (1988). Women and Power in the Middle Ages. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press. CALL NUMBER: HQ1143 .W63 1988

Hanawalt, Barbara A. (2007). The Wealth of Wives: Women, Law, and Economy in Late Medieval London. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. CALL NUMBER: HQ1147 .G7 H36 2007

Jackson, Guida M. (editor). (1990). Women Who Ruled. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, Inc. CALL NUMBER: REF D107 .J33 1990

Biographies of "all women rulers, de facto rulers, and constitutional monarchs, living or deceased, of the world's kingdoms, islands, empires, nations, and tribes since the beginning of recorded history." A little dated ut very interesting, containing entries on pretty obscure female figures from the Middle Ages and Late Antiquity.

Kersey, Ethel M. (editor). (1989). Women Philosophers: A Bio-Critical Source Book. New York, NY: Greenwood Press. CALL NUMBER: REF B105 .W6 K47 1989

McCash, June Hall (editor). (1996.) The Cultural Patronage of Medieval Women. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press. CALL NUMBER: CB353 .C837 1996

Munsterberg, Hugo. (1975). A History of Women Artists. New York, NY: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc. CALL NUMBER: N8343 .M86 1975

Olson, Linda and Kathryn Kerby-Fulton (editors). (2005). Voices in Dialogue: Reading Women in the Middles Ages. Notre Damn, IN: University of Notre Dame Press. CALL NUMBER: HQ1143 .V67 2005

Petersen, Karen and J. J. Wilson. (1976). Women Artists: Recognition and Reappraisal from the Early Middle Ages to the Twentieth Century. New York, NY: New York University Press. `CALL NUMBER: N8354 .P48

Ranft, Patricia. (2002). Women in Western Intellectual Culture, 600-1500. New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan. CALL NUMBER: HQ1143 .R35 2002

Swabey, ffiona. (1999). Medieval Gentlewoman: Life in a Gentry Household in the Later Middle Ages. New York, NY: Routledge. CALL NUMBER: DA247 .D42 Sp3 1999b

Medieval Women and Religion

Monastic Matrix: A Scholarly Resource for the Study of Women's Religious communities from 400 to 1600 CE (University of Southern California)

Excellent resource containing profiles of medieval women's monastic communities, biographies, primary and secondary sources, bibliographies, and images.

Bell, Rudolph M. (1985). Holy Anorexia. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. CALL NUMBER: BX1656 .B45 1985

Bynum, Caroline Walker. (1987). Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. CALL NUMBER: BR253 .B96 1987

Elliot, Dyan. (2005). Proving Woman: Female Spirituality and Inquisitional Culture in the Later Middle Ages. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. CALL NUMBER: BR163 .E55 2004.

Millet, Bella and Jocelyn Wogan-Browne (editors). (1992). Medieval English Prose for Women: From the Katherine Group and Ancrene Wisse. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press. CALL NUMBER: PR1120 .M374 1992

Winston-Allen, Anne. (2004). Convent Chronicles: Women Writing about Women and Reform in the Late Middle Ages. University Park, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. CALL NUMBER: PT255 .W56 2004

Biographies of Medieval Women

Brown, Nancy Marie. (2007). The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman. Orlando, FL: Harcourt. BOSTON UNIV. CALL NUMBER: DL65 .B77 2007

This "biography" attempts to reconstruct the experiences of Gudrid Thorbjornardottir, the sister-in-law of Leif Eriksson, who traveled with him, her husband, and others to "Vinland" (most likely modern day Newfoundland) around the year 1000 AD.

Chibnall, Marjorie. (1992). The Empress Matilda: Queen Consort, Queen Mother, and Lady of the English. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell. HARVARD UNIV. CALL NUMBER: DA198.6 .C48 1992

Kelly, Amy. (1958). Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. CALL NUMBER: DA209 .E6 K45

Luongo, F. Thomas. (2006). The Saintly Politics of Catherine of Siena. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. BOSTON UNIV. CALL NUMBER: BX4700 .C4 L86 2006

Stansbury, Don. (1993). The Lady Who Fought the Vikings. Devon, UK: Imogen Books. HARVARD UNIV. CALL NUMBER: DA154.9 E84 S73 1993

One of the few biographies of the obscure tenth-century Anglo-Saxon queen Aethelflaed, daughter of Alfred the Great, king of Wessex and wife of Aethelred, ruler of Mercia. Following her husband's death she ruled Mercia in his place for 15 years and fought off Danish attacks and rebuilt the city of Gloucester from Roman ruins.

Weir, Alison. (2000). Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life. New York, NY: Ballantine Books. NORTHEASTERN UNIV. CALL NUMBER: DA209 .E6 2000

--. (2005). Queen Isabella: Treachery, Adultery, and Murder in Medieval England. New York, NY: Ballantine Books. CALL NUMBER: DA231 .I83 W45 2005

Women in Medieval Literature

Primary Sources

Blamires, Alcuin (editor). (1992). Woman Defamed and Woman Defended: An Anthology of Medieval Texts. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press. CALL NUMBER: PR1912 .A2 W65 1992

Kennedy, Charles W. (translator). (1960). An Anthology of Old English Poetry. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. CALL NUMBER: PR1508 .K36

Few of the poems included in this anthology feature women, but it does contain a translation of "The Wife's Lament", a significant Old English exile poem from the perspective of the widow of a lord.

McMillan, Ann (translator). (1987). Geoffrey Chaucer's The Legend of Good Women. Houston, TX: Rice University Press. CALL NUMBER: PR1881 .A2 1987

Taylor, Paul B. and W. H. Auden (translators). The Elder Edda: A Selection. New York, NY: Random House. CALL NUMBER: PT7234 .E5 T4

Secondary Sources

Bloch, R. Howard. (1991). Medieval Misogyny and the Invention of Western Romantic Love. Chicago, OH: Chicago University Press. CALL NUMBER: HQ1143 .B56 1991

Classic work which discusses the misogynistic aspects of the courtly love tradition and chivalry.

Jochens, Jenny. (1996). Old Norse Images of Women. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. CALL NUMBER: PT7162 .W6 J6 1996

Levin, Carole and Jeanie Watson (editors). (1987) Ambiguous Realities: Women in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press. CALL NUMBER: PN56.5 .W64 A49 1987

Poor, Sara S. and Jana K. Schulman (editors). (2007). Women and Medieval Epic: Gender, Genre, and the Limits of Epic Masculinity. The New Middle Ages. New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan. CALL NUMBER: PQ690 .W66 W66 2007

Literature by Medieval Women

Introductions and Anthologies

Dinshaw, Carolyn and David Wallace (editors). (2003). The Cambridge Companion to Medieval Women's Writing. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. CALL NUMBER: PN682 .W6 C36 2003

Dronke, Peter. (1984). Women Writers of the Middle Ages: A Critical Study of Texts from Perpetua (AD 203) to Marguerite Porete (AD 1310). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. CALL NUMBER: PN 471 .D76

Wilson, Katharina M. (editor). (1984). Medieval Women Writers. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press. CALL NUMBER: PN667 .M43 1984

Epistolae: Medieval Women's Letters (Columbia University).

This is a large collection of translations of letters written by medieval women. The letters were translated by Dr. Joan Ferrante of Columbia and the website was developed by the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning. Most of these letters are available in print resources but here they are gathered together and are easily accessible. It also contains biographies of the women letter-writers.

Important Female Writers

Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim (935-1002) Bonfante, Larissa (translator). (1986). The Plays of Hrotswitha of Gandersheim. Oak Park, IL: Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers. CALL NUMBER: PA8340 .A25 B6 1986

Anna Comnena (1083-1153) Sewter, E. R. A. (translator). (2009). The Alexiad. London, UK: Penguin Books. HARVARD UNIV. CALL NUMBER: DF605. .C55 2009

Anna Comnena was a Byzantine princess who nearly became empress. She wrote this history of her father, Alexius, when she was an old woman locked away for planning a coup to put her husband on the throne. She is considered to be the first female historian.

Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) Hozeski, Bruce (translator). (1986). Hildegard of Bingen's Scivias. Santa Fe, NM: Bear & Co. CALL NUMBER: BV5080 .H5413 1986

Maddocks, Fiona. (2001). Hildegard of Bingen: The Woman of Her Age. New York, NY: Doubleday. CALL NUMBER: BX4700 .H5 M33 2001

Newman, Barbara. (1987). Sister of Wisdom: St. Hildegard's Theology of the Feminine. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. CALL NUMBER: BX4700 .H5 N48 1987

Ordo Virtutum [sound recording]. (1990). New York, NY: BMG. CALL NUMBER: M3 .H5 O74 1990 (Circulation Desk)

Marie de France (12th century) Hanning, Robert and Joan Ferrante (translators and editors). (1982). The Lais of Marie de France. Durham, NC: Labyrinth Press. CALL NUMBER: PQ1494 .L3 E5 1982

Christine de Pizan (1363-1430) Altmann, Barbara K. and Deborah L. McGrady (editors). (2003). Christine de Pizan: A Casebook. New York, NY: Routledge. CALL NUMBER: PQ 1575 .Z5 C464 2003

Richards, Earl Jeffrey (translator). (1982). The Book of the City of Ladies. New York, NY: Persea Books. CALL NUMBER: PQ1575 .L56 E5 1982

Margery Kempe (1373-1438) Atkinson, Clarissa W. (1983). Mystic and Pilgrim: The Book and the World of Margery Kempe. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. CALL NUMBER: PR2007 .K4 Z54 1983

Skinner, John (translator). (1998). The Book of Margery Kempe. New York, NY: Doubleday. CALL NUMBER: PR2007 .K4 A199 1998 Created by Annalisa Moretti May 2011 [email protected]