Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index

• Quick Search
• Advanced Search
• Article of the Month
• Translation of the Month
• Image of the Month
• Special Features

1. Record Number: 44501 Author(s): Goitein, Shelomo Dov, Contributor(s): Title : A Refugee Woman from Jerusalem Writes from Tripoli Source: Jewish Women in the Medieval World: 500-1500 CE. Sarah Ifft Decker.   Edited by Sarah Ifftt Decker. Shelomo Dov Goitein is the translator of Document 15 .   Routledge, 2022.  Pages 132 - 133. This translation was originally published in S. D. Goitein, "Tyre-Tripoli-'Arqa: Geniza Documents from the Beginning of the Crusader Period," Jewish Quarterly Review New Series, Vol. 66, No. 2 (1975): 69-88. Year of Publication: 2022.

---

2. Record Number: 44759 Author(s): Contributor(s): Title : Llanthony Story #20: Thomas Becket gives a poor clerk a living through the intercession of the Virgin Source: The Llanthony Stories: A Translation of the Narrationes aliquot fabulosae.   Edited by David R. Winter .   Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2021.  Pages 81 - 81. Year of Publication: 2021.

---

3. Record Number: 24109 Author(s): Lisciotto, Donatella Contributor(s): Title : L'origine del monasterio di Montevergine in Messina [Eustochia Calafetto left a monastery of Poor Clares to found one that followed the strictest version of the order’s life. Many of her nuns came from important families, and their increasing numbers required expansion of the original monastery. The monastery benefited from Eustochia’s reputation for sanctity, but eventually it became less rigorous in the observances that she had promoted. Title note supplied by Feminae.] Source: Collectanea Franciscana , 78., 1-2 ( 2008):  Pages 685 - 700. Year of Publication: 2008.

---

4. Record Number: 10572 Author(s): Alberzoni, Maria Pia. Contributor(s): Title : Da Pauperes Domine a Sorores Pauperes: la negazione di un modello di santita itinerante femminile? [In 1263 Pope Urban IV attempted to bring unity to the Poor Clares, imposing norms of monastic enclosure that limited the ideal of Franciscan poverty. Clare's own letters reveal her past struggles with Cardinal Ugolino (Gregory IX) for preservation of the ideal of strict poverty and mendicancy. Urban's bull also required that the Franciscan friars limit their care of women religious to the Clares. Title note supplied by Feminae.]. Source: Pellegrinaggi e culto dei Santi: Santita minoritica del primo e secundo ordine.   Edited by Benedetto Vetere .   Mario Congedo editore, 2004. Collectanea Franciscana , 78., 1-2 ( 2008):  Pages 39 - 59. Year of Publication: 2004.

---

5. Record Number: 9515 Author(s): Bennett, Judith M. Contributor(s): Title : Writing Fornication: Medieval Leyrwite and Its Historians (Read 4 July 2002) [In the Appendix the author lists the printed editions of primary sources that she consulted. She also includes brief comments on the situation for south-western England (Devon and Cornwall), since leyrwite was exceptionally high in Cornwall.]. Source: Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. Sixth Series , 13., ( 2003):  Pages 131 - 162. Year of Publication: 2003.

---

6. Record Number: 10896 Author(s): Mueller, Joan. Contributor(s): Title : Agnes of Prague and the Rule of St. Clare Source: Studies in Spirituality , 13., ( 2003):  Pages 155 - 167. Year of Publication: 2003.

---

7. Record Number: 8501 Author(s): Lansing, Carol. Contributor(s): Title : Concubines, Lovers, Prostitutes: Infamy and Female Identity in Medieval Bologna [The author analyzes secular law court records both for the attitudes of poor men and women toward the informal living arrangements which some couples maintained and for the attitudes of the elite and of judges. The author argues that it was the intention of those with power to reinforce behavior norms for "honest" women. Title note supplied by Feminae.]. Source: Beyond Florence: The Contours of Medieval and Early Modern Italy.   Edited by Paula Findlen, Michelle M. Fontaine, and Duane J. Osheim .   Stanford University Press, 2003. Studies in Spirituality , 13., ( 2003):  Pages 85 Year of Publication: 2003.

---

8. Record Number: 13052 Author(s): Cullum, P. H. Contributor(s): Title : Life-Cycle and Life-Course in a Clerical and Celibate Milieu: Northern England in the Later Middle Ages [The author compares the life-cycles of clergy with those of laymen. In many cases the clerics experienced an extended adolescence. Not infrequently they also lived in poverty in both youth and old age. When clerics set up households, they often created quasi-families either with blood nephews or with promising young men whom they treated as their sons. Title note supplied by Feminae.]. Source: Time and eternity: the medieval discourse.   Edited by Gerhard Jaritz and Gerson Moreno-Riaño International Medieval Research .   Brepols, 2003. Studies in Spirituality , 13., ( 2003):  Pages 271 - 281. Year of Publication: 2003.

---

9. Record Number: 10834 Author(s): Peterson, Ingrid, O.S.F. Contributor(s): Title : Thirteenth-Century Penitential Women: Franciscan Life in the Secular World Source: Studies in Spirituality , 12., ( 2002):  Pages 43 - 60. Year of Publication: 2002.

---

10. Record Number: 8805 Author(s): Lansing, Carol. Contributor(s): Title : Girls in Trouble in Late Medieval Bologna [The author draws evidence of teenaged girls from thirteenth century legal testimony. These cases involved concubines, kidnappings, pregnancies, and neglected girls without marriage prospects. Though the court tended to view these girls as victims, some evidence suggests they were frequently independent and even rebellious. Title note supplied by Feminae.] Source: The Premodern Teenager: Youth in Society, 1150-1650.   Edited by Konrad Eisenbichler .   Publications of the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, Essays and Studies, 1. Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2002. Studies in Spirituality , 12., ( 2002):  Pages 293 - 309. Year of Publication: 2002.

---

11. Record Number: 6641 Author(s): Cullum, P. H. Contributor(s): Title : Gendering Charity in Medieval Hagiography [the author argues that not only did ideas about gendered behavior affect views of sanctity but conceptions of sanctity also had an impact on gender roles; men were expected to be charitable but responsible while women were often characterized as irresponsible, excessive, and other negative feminine stereotypes; in transgressing gender lines some charitable holy women and men were still canonized (e.g., Saint Francis and Elizabeth of Hungary) while others were rejected as role models (e.g., Charles of Blois and Peter Valdes)]. Source: Gender and Holiness: Men, Women, and Saints in Late Medieval Europe.   Edited by Samantha J. E. Riches and Sarah Salih .   Routledge, 2002. Studies in Spirituality , 12., ( 2002):  Pages 135 - 151. Year of Publication: 2002.

---

12. Record Number: 10835 Author(s): Delio, Ilia. Contributor(s): Title : Clare of Assisi: Beauty and Transformation Source: Studies in Spirituality , 12., ( 2002):  Pages 68 - 81. Year of Publication: 2002.

---

13. Record Number: 5967 Author(s): Farmer, Sharon. Contributor(s): Title : Poor Men, the Stigma of Poverty, and the Burdens of Masculinity Source: Gender and Conflict in the Middle Ages. Gender and Medieval Studies Conference, York, January 5-7 2001. .  2001. Studies in Spirituality , 12., ( 2002): Year of Publication: 2001.

---

14. Record Number: 6034 Author(s): Coletti, Theresa. Contributor(s): Title : Paupertas est donum Dei: Hagiography, Lay Religion, and the Economics of Salvation in the Digby "Mary Magdalene" [the author argues that the Digby playwright uses Mary Magdalene to bring into relief questions of salvation for those with landed wealth and in commerce; Mary Magdalene's emphasis on poverty and charity does not question the social order but gives merchants and the gentry opportunities for spiritual benefit by donating to the poor and by striving to be themselves poor in spirit]. Source: Speculum , 76., 2 (April 2001):  Pages 337 - 378. Year of Publication: 2001.

---

15. Record Number: 4671 Author(s): Pasztor, Edith. Contributor(s): Title : Esperienza di povertà al femminile in Italia tra XII e XIV secolo [Beginning in the thirteenth century, women not born into poverty increasingly embraced that state voluntarily. Some of the noted religious women were born into poverty, but others abandoned comfortable lives to follow the poor Christ and share the lot of His poor. Religious women who depended on alms were expected to repay these offerings with their prayers]. Source: Donne e sante: Studi sulla religiosità femminile nel Medio Evo. Edith Pasztor .   Edizioni Studium, 2000. Studies in Spirituality , 10., ( 2000):  Pages 131 - 149. Originally published in La conversione alla povertà nell'Italia dei secoli XII- XIV. Spoleto, 1991. Pages 369-389. Year of Publication: 2000.

---

16. Record Number: 4672 Author(s): Pasztor, Edith. Contributor(s): Title : Sant'Elisabetta d'Ungheia nella religiosità femminile del secolo XIII [Elizabeth of Hungary is known for both her charitable actions and her visions. The latter aspect of her life can be studied from the reports of her maid, Isentrude, to Conrad of Marburg. Both Elizabeth's charitable work and her emphasis on the humanity of Christ place her within the Franciscan tradition. Once widowed, Elizabeth embraced continence, but Conrad refused to permit her to become a mendicant]. Source: Donne e sante: Studi sulla religiosità femminile nel Medio Evo. Edith Pasztor .   Edizioni Studium, 2000. Studies in Spirituality , 10., ( 2000):  Pages 153 - 171. Earlier published in Studies in Church History 27 (1990): 53-78. Year of Publication: 2000.

---

17. Record Number: 4673 Author(s): Pasztor, Edith. Contributor(s): Title : Filippa Mareri e Chiara d'Assisi [Filippa Mareri, a noblewoman, tried being a bride of Christ in her parents' castle, and then she became an anchoress. Eventually she and her followers became Poor Clares. Unlike Clare, Filippa did not know Francis, and she acted more as a dominant lady and less as a sister to her nuns, as Clare had done]. Source: Donne e sante: Studi sulla religiosità femminile nel Medio Evo. Edith Pasztor .   Edizioni Studium, 2000. Studies in Spirituality , 10., ( 2000):  Pages 173 - 196. Earlier published in Studies in Church History 27 (1990): 53-78. Year of Publication: 2000.

---

18. Record Number: 5229 Author(s): Mueller, Joan. Contributor(s): Title : Agnes of Prague and the Juridical Implications of the Privilege of Poverty [Agnes, daughter of the King of Bohemia, was inspired by Clare of Assisi to enter the order of Poor Clares ; Agnes resisted papal efforts to force her acceptance of property and other endowments for her monastery]. Source: Franciscan Studies , 58., ( 2000):  Pages 261 - 287. Year of Publication: 2000.

---

19. Record Number: 16584 Author(s): Friedrichs, Rhoda Lange. Contributor(s): Title : Rich Old Ladies Made Poor: The Vulnerability of Women's Property in Late Medieval England Source: Medieval Prosopography , 21., ( 2000):  Pages 211 - 229. Year of Publication: 2000.

---

20. Record Number: 5384 Author(s): Peterson, Ingrid, O.S.F. Contributor(s): Title : Angela of Foligno: The Active Life and the Following of Christ Source: Studies in Spirituality , 10., ( 2000):  Pages 125 - 142. Year of Publication: 2000.

---

21. Record Number: 4244 Author(s): Pellegrini, Luigi. Contributor(s): Title : Female Religious Experience and Society in Thirteenth-Century Italy [the author examines the Church's reaction to the waves of religious enthusiasm experienced by Italian women; despite the new order of Poor Clares, many women in the second half of the thirteenth century could not or perhaps would not be accommodated there]. Source: Monks and Nuns, Saints and Outcasts: Religion in Medieval Society. Essays in Honor of Lester K. Little.   Edited by Sharon Farmer and Barbara H. Rosenwein .   Cornell University Press, 2000. Studies in Spirituality , 10., ( 2000):  Pages 97 - 122. Year of Publication: 2000.

---

22. Record Number: 6670 Author(s): Simonetti, Adele. Contributor(s): Title : Santita femminile vallombrosana fra due e trecento [Vallombrosan nuns brought the spirituality of the wilderness into cities like Florence; they fulfilled their individual spiritual needs in an institutional context acceptable to the Church, and they subordinated their own needs to those of the community; penitent women like Umilta of Faenza also became community assets through their reputations for piety and miracle working; Vallombrosan hagiography endorses apostolic poverty while avoiding the extremes of Franciscan claims to exceptionality]. Source: Il colloquio vallombrosano: L'Ordo Vallisumbrosae tra XII e XIII Secolo: Gli sviluppi istituzionali e culturali e l'espansione geografica (1101-1293):Vallombrosa, 25-28 agosto 1996. Vol. 1.   Edited by Giordano Monzo Compagnoni .   Edizioni Vallombrosa, 1999. Studies in Spirituality , 10., ( 2000):  Pages 467 - 481. Year of Publication: 1999.

---

23. Record Number: 2999 Author(s): Farmer, Sharon. Contributor(s): Title : Down and Out and Female in Thirteenth-Century Paris Source: American Historical Review (Full Text via JSTOR) 103, 2 (April 1998): 344-372. Link Info Year of Publication: 1998.

---

24. Record Number: 2576 Author(s): Brodman, James William. Contributor(s): Title : The Care of Women and Children [discusses provisions for poor women's dowries, the rehabilitation of prostitutes, and care of abandoned children in orphanages, with wet nurses, and in apprenticeships]. Source: Charity and Welfare: Hospitals and the Poor in Medieval Catalonia. James William Brodman Middle Ages Series .   University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998.  Pages 100 - 124. Year of Publication: 1998.

---

25. Record Number: 3664 Author(s): Cohn, Samuel Kline Jr. Contributor(s): Title : Marriage in the Mountains: The Florentine Territorial State, 1348- 1500 [the author analyzes peasant marriage patterns in three regions, one in the plains and two in the mountains; dowry prices suggest that society was less egalitarian in the mountains than in the plains; the distances between spouses suggest that the people in the mountains were much less insular than those in the plains in which a third married within their own village]. Source: Marriage in Italy, 1300-1650.   Edited by Trevor Dean and K. J. P. Lowe .   Cambridge University Press, 1998.  Pages 174 - 196. Year of Publication: 1998.

---

26. Record Number: 5472 Author(s): Prinzivalli, Emanuela. Contributor(s): Title : Le fonti agiografiche come documenti per la vita di Chiara [Sources for Clare's life are scarce; these include her writings, acts of her canonization process, and her earliest legend; this text, often attributed to Thomas of Celano, can be checked against the testimony in the canonization process; and it represents a moment in the history of the Franciscan movement; individual details, present in recorded testimony, become adapted to hagiographic models in the legend and, even more so, in papal bulls concerning the canonization; the legend emphasizes Clare's love of poverty, but her confrontation with Gregory IX over a life of poverty is deemphasized; the Franciscans had become institutionalized and could not present Clare as a rebel]. Source: Hagiographica: Rivista di agiografia e biografia della società internazionale per lo studio del Medioevo Latino/ Journal of Hagiography and Biography of Società Internazionale per lo studio del Medioevo Latino , 4., ( 1997):  Pages 197 - 219. Year of Publication: 1997.

---

27. Record Number: 2274 Author(s): Skinner, Patricia. Contributor(s): Title : Gender and Poverty in the Medieval Community Source: Medieval Women in Their Communities.   Edited by Diane Watt .   University of Toronto Press, 1997.  Pages 204 - 221. Year of Publication: 1997.

---

28. Record Number: 521 Author(s): Richards, Marie. Contributor(s): Title : Community and Poverty in the Reformed Order of St. Clare in the Fifteenth Century Source: Journal of Religious History , 19., 1 (June 1995):  Pages 10 - 25. Year of Publication: 1995.

---

29. Record Number: 6781 Author(s): Steuer, Susan M. B. Contributor(s): Title : Family Strategies in Medieval London: Financial Planning and the Urban Widow, 1123-1473 [the author uses the published edition of the cartulary of St. Bartholomew's Hospital to trace the help given to widows not just aid to needy widows but also taking over property management and making retirement arrangements for well-to-do widows who lacked family support]. Source: Essays in Medieval Studies , 12., ( 1995):  Pages 1 - 4. and 1-2 (notes) [in the electronic version available through Project Muse]. Issue title: Children and the Family in the Middle Ages. Year of Publication: 1995.

---

30. Record Number: 380 Author(s): Guest, Gerald B. Contributor(s): Title : A Discourse on the Poor: The Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux Source: Viator , 26., ( 1995):  Pages 153 - 180. Published under the auspices of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, University of California, Los Angeles Year of Publication: 1995.

---

31. Record Number: 5660 Author(s): Sensi, Mario. Contributor(s): Title : Chiara d'Assisi nell'Umbria del Quattrocento [use of the original rule of Saint Clare, long eclipsed by other versions, revived in the fifteenth century in Umbria; many houses of reformed Clares were affiliated with the Franciscan Observants, but it is difficult to correlate this with revived use of the primitive rule; veneration of Clare in Umbria included invocations against the plague]. Source: Collectanea Franciscana , 64., ( 1994):  Pages 215 - 239. Year of Publication: 1994.

---

32. Record Number: 2468 Author(s): Peterson, Ingrid, O.S.F. Contributor(s): Title : Clare of Assisi's Mysticism of the Poor Crucified Source: Studies in Spirituality , 4., ( 1994):  Pages 51 - 78. Year of Publication: 1994.

---

33. Record Number: 1840 Author(s): Esposito, Anna. Contributor(s): Title : Ad dotandum puellas virgines, pauperes et honestas: Social Needs and Confraternal Charity in Rome in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries Source: Renaissance and Reformation/Renaissance et Réforme New Series , 18., 2 ( 1994):  Pages 5 - 18. Year of Publication: 1994.

---

34. Record Number: 5022 Author(s): Klaniczay, Gábor Contributor(s): Title : The Cinderella Effect: Late Medieval Female Sainthood in Central Europe and in Italy [The author examines the ideal of sainthood represented by pious princesses in Central Europe and how this aristocratic and mendicant movement fared in Italy where urban female sainthood embraced all social classes]. Source: East Central Europe , 20., 1 ( 1993- 1996):  Pages 51 - 68. Special issue title: Women and Power in East Central Europe - Medieval and Modern. Edited by Marianne Sághy. Year of Publication: 1993- 1996.

---

35. Record Number: 10677 Author(s): Olsen, Ulla Sander. Contributor(s): Title : Work and Work Ethics in the Nunnery of Syon Abbey in the Fifteenth Century [The author examines the Brigittine Rule and additional legislation for the nuns of Syon for sections dealing with manual labor. Saint Bridget originally declared that all sisters must work and there would be no "conversae" or servant sisters. However, the first nun at Syon refused to honor this provision. At the dissolution of Syon there were four lay sisters to do the heavy work. The nuns spent their work time doing embroidery and copying manuscripts. Title note supplied by Feminae.]. Source: Medieval Mystical Tradition in England: Exeter Symposium , 5., ( 1992):  Pages 129 - 143. Year of Publication: 1992.

---

36. Record Number: 8689 Author(s): Contributor(s): Title : And Hir Name was Charite: Charitable Giving by and for Women in Late Medieval Yorkshire [Using evidence from Yorkshire wills, the author attempts to determine patterns of female charity and poverty in fifteenth-century England. Title note supplied by Feminae.]. Source: Woman is a Worthy Wight: Women in English Society c. 1200-1500.   Edited by P.J.P. Goldberg .   Alan Sutton Publishing, 1992. East Central Europe , 20., 1 ( 1993- 1996):  Pages 182 - 211. Year of Publication: 1992.

---

37. Record Number: 40971 Author(s): Contributor(s): Title : Francesca Romana heals a young man who had lost the use of his leg Source: Medieval Mystical Tradition in England: Exeter Symposium , 5., ( 1992): Year of Publication:

---

Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index ©2014. Hosted by The University of Iowa Libraries.