Religious Women in Early Carolingian Francia: A Study of Manuscript Transmission and Monastic Culture

by Felice Lifshitz

Overview

Religious Women in Early Carolingian Francia, a groundbreaking study of the intellectual and monastic culture of the Main Valley during the eighth century, looks closely at a group of manuscripts associated with some of the best-known personalities of the European Middle Ages, including Boniface of Mainz and his “beloved,”abbess Leoba of Tauberbischofsheim. This is the first study of these “Anglo-Saxon missionaries to Germany” to delve into the details of their lives by studying the manuscripts that were produced in their scriptoria and used in their communities. The author explores how one group of religious women helped to shape the culture of medieval Europe through the texts they wrote and copied, as well as through their editorial interventions.
Using compelling manuscript evidence, she argues that the content of the women’s books was overwhelmingly gender-egalitarian and frequently feminist (i.e., resistant to patriarchal ideas). This intriguing book provides unprecedented glimpses into the “feminist consciousness” of the women’s and mixed-sex communities that flourished in the early Middle Ages.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780823256877
Publisher:	Fordham University Press
Publication date:	05/01/2014
Series:	Fordham Series in Medieval Studies
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Felice Lifshitz is Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies and of Religious Studies at the University of Alberta.

Table of Contents

List of Color Plates

List of Abbreviations

Preface: Medieval Feminism

Acknowledgments

Part I: Introductions: People, Places, Things
1. Syneisactism and Reform: Gender Relations in the Anglo-Saxon Cultural Province in Francia
2. The Monastic Landscape of the Anglo-Saxon Cultural Province in Francia
3. The Gun(t)za and Abirhilt Manuscripts: Women and their Books in the Anglo-Saxon Cultural Province in Francia

Part II: Textual Analysis
4. "I am Crucified in Christ" (Galatians 2:20): The Kitzingen Crucifixion Miniature and Visions of the Apostle Paul
5. "We Interpret Spiritual Truths to People Possessed of the Spirit" (1 Cor. 2:13): Studying the Bible with the Fathers of the Church
6. "The Sensual Man does not Perceive those Things that are of the Spirit of God" (1 Cor. 2:14): History and Theology in the Stories of the Saints"
7. "An Eternal Weight of Glory" (2 Cor. 4: 17): Discipline and Devotion in Monastic Life

Part III: Conclusions
8. "Now Concerning Virgins, I Have No Commandment of the Lord" (1 Cor. 7:25): Consecrated Women and Altar Service in the Anglo-Saxon Cultural Province in Francia
9. "Through a Glass Darkly" (1 Cor. 13:12): Textual Transmission and Historical Representation as Feminist Strategies in Early Medieval Europe

Notes

Bibliography: Manuscripts and Printed Materials

Index

Editorial Reviews

"Erudite, intellectually rigorous, and well-researched, Religious Women in Early Carolingian Francia offers a more detailed study of religious women in eighth-century Francia in greater depth than anyone else has heretofore published."-Valerie L. Garver, Northern Illinois University

"In this pathbreaking book, Felice Lifshitz gives us a magisterial reexamination of the place of women in the early medieval Chritianity. Through an innovative and convincing analysis of a range of manuscripts produced by and for Frankish religious women, she shows us how the Christian culture and intellectual life of the eighth century were gender-egalitarian and even 'feminist' in the sense of a resistance to patriarchal ideas. An exciting book for medievalists, but also for anyone interested in the history of gender relations over the centuries."—Anne-Marie Helvetius, Professor of Medieval History, University of Paris VIII—Vincennes—Saint-Denis.

"Lifshitz has written an interesting book in which she presents new perspectives and scenarios on an ongoing debate."—TMR: The Medieval Review

"Lifshitz's endeavor to map a cultural and intellectual world and explore a collective identity on the basis of a limited—yet unique—set of sources not only forms an important contribution to feminist scholarship but also creates a model for other manuscript-based explorations of collective identities. This is a splendid book."—Albrecht Diem, Catholic Historical Review

"I highly recommend Religious Women to scholars and advanced students working in the fields of church history, women's history, palaeography and early medieval history more broadly. Certain chapters, such as 'I am Crucified in Christ', would work beautifully in a course on women and Christianity and would spark lively debate as, no doubt, this book will continue to do."-Linda Coon, Gender & History

"An important addition to our knowledge of women's participation in the transmission and editing of religious texts."-American Historical Review

"Religious Women in Early Carolingian Francia is an important book, not only affirming its subjects' agency but also demonstrating the force of delicate tools-paleographical precision, exposition of visual detail, minute attention to a small group of texts-in shaping a broad interpretation of medieval people's self-understanding."-Speculum

"Lifshitz's ability to engage with a variety of textual genres presents the monastic libraries of Karlburg and Kitzingen in full, giving the reader a tangible sense of the texts that were read and re-read in many monastic communities. She has made a valuable contribution to Carolingian manuscript studies and gender history, and it can only be hoped that this book will encourage further combinations of the two disciplines in the future."-English Historical Review

"Whether specialists or not, readers will find in this study a stimulating exposition of the cultural achievements of early medieval consecrated women, important insights into Carolingian reform's attempt to suppress an alternative tradition of a gender egalitarian church, and a persuasive case for the existence of feminism in the early Middle Ages."—The Historian

From the Publisher

This book is indispensable for any scholar of eighth-century Francia, early medieval textual transmission, or gender studies in the Middle Ages.

Early Medieval Europe

Lifshitz has written an interesting book in which she presents new perspectives and scenarios on an ongoing debate.

TMR: The Medieval Review

“Erudite, intellectually rigorous, and well-researched, Religious Women in Early Carolingian Francia offers a more detailed study of religious women in eighth-century Francia in greater depth than anyone else has heretofore published.

Northern Illinois University - Valerie L. Garver

In this pathbreaking book, Felice Lifshitz gives us a magisterial reexamination of the place of women in the early medieval Chritianity. Through an innovative and convincing analysis of a range of manuscripts produced by and for Frankish religious women, she shows us how the Christian culture and intellectual life of the eighth century were gender-egalitarian and even ‘feminist’ in the sense of a resistance to patriarchal ideas. An exciting book for medievalists, but also for anyone interested in the history of gender relations over the centuries.

Professor of Medieval History, University of Paris VIII-Vincennes-Saint-Denis. - Anne-Marie Helvetius

Once again, Felice Lifshitz has emerged from the archives with set of neglected texts —this time, documents from the English monasteries of Leoba and Boniface in Germany—and applies her usual fierce scrutiny to the manuscripts in order to show the rest of us what we have missed, misconstrued, and misinterpreted about early medieval history, gender, and religion. This book offers a model method for graduate students and a reminder to all medievalists that the sometimes onerous analysis of manuscripts still has much to tell us about such well-known topics as the Christianization of Germany as well as such seemingly modern issues as gender equity and women's intellectual agency.

University of Southern California - Lisa Bitel

Lifshitz’s endeavor to map a cultural and intellectual world and explore a collective identity on the basis of a limited—yet unique—set of sources not only forms an important contribution to feminist scholarship but also creates a model for other manuscript-based explorations of collective identities. This is a splendid book.

Catholic Historical Review - Albrecht Diem

“I highly recommend Religious Women to scholars and advanced students working in the fields of church history, women’s history, palaeography and early medieval history more broadly. Certain chapters, such as ‘I am Crucified in Christ’, would work beautifully in a course on women and Christianity and would spark lively debate as, no doubt, this book will continue to do.

Gender & History Linda Coon

Whether specialists or not, readers will find in this study a stimulating exposition of the cultural achievements of early medieval consecrated women, important insights into Carolingian reform’s attempt to suppress an alternative tradition of a gender egalitarian church, and a persuasive case for the existence of feminism in the early Middle Ages.

The Historian

Religious Women in Early Carolingian Francia is an important book, not only affirming its subjects’ agency but also demonstrating the force of delicate tools—paleographical precision, exposition of visual detail, minute attention to a small group of texts—in shaping a broad interpretation of medieval people’s self-understanding.

Speculum

Lifshitz’s ability to engage with a variety of textual genres presents the monastic libraries of Karlburg and Kitzingen in full, giving the reader a tangible sense of the texts that were read and re-read in many monastic communities. She has made a valuable contribution to Carolingian manuscript studies and gender history, and it can only be hoped that this book will encourage further combinations of the two disciplines in the future.

English Historical Review

An important addition to our knowledge of women’s participation in the transmission and editing of religious texts.

American Historical Review