Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 7517
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): Seyfarth , Jutta.
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: The "Speculum virginum": The Testimony of the Manuscripts
  • Source: Listen, Daughter: The "Speculum virginum" and the Formation of Religious Women in the Middle Ages.  Edited by Constant J. Mews.  The New Middle Ages Series. Palgrave, 2001.  Pages 41 - 57.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Essay
  • Subject (See Also): Ecclesiastical Reform Handbooks Manuscripts Monasticism Scribes and Scriptoria Speculum Virginum, Latin Handbook for Nuns Women in Religion
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: Germany
  • Century: 12
  • Primary Evidence: Manuscript; 1) London, British Library, Arundel 44. 129 folios. Four scribes worked on the text of the "Speculum virginum." It includes the "Epithalamium" and the entrance song, in addition to marginalia and pictures.2) Cologne, Historisches Archiv der Stadt Köln, W
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  • Abstract: This chapter introduces the manuscripts of the "Speculum virginum," with particular attention to considering the significance of the British Library manuscript, Arundel 44 (L), and what the manuscripts might reveal about the identity of its author. It places this fictional dialogue between a religious guide and a female disciple within the context of reforming currents of the twelfth century that attached great importance to the involvement of women in religious life. While the Arundel manuscript was given to the Cistercian abbey of Eberbach by the late twelfth century, the Cologne manuscript of the "Speculum virginum," copied either directly from "L" or (as is suggested here) from its exemplar, probably came from the Augustinian abbey at Andernach, founded in 1128 by Richard of Springiersbach and his sister Tenxwind, with the support of a priest called Conrad. Another early manuscript of the "Speculum" is associated with a sister house of Andernach, at Frankenthal. [Reproduced by permission of Palgrave].
  • Related Resources:
  • Author's Affiliation: University of Cologne
  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 2001.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN/ISBN: 0312240082