Crown and Veil

by Hamburger, Jeffrey F.

• ISBN13: 9780231139809
• ISBN10: 0231139802
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-05-25
• Publisher: Columbia Univ Pr

Summary

Crown and Veiloffers a broad introduction to the history and visual culture of female monasticism in the Middle Ages, from the earliest communities of Late Antiquity to the Reformation. Scholars from numerous disciplines offer a wide range of perspectives not to be found in any other single book on the subject, placing the art, architecture, literature, liturgy, religious practices, and economic foundations of these communities within a wide historical and cultural context.Long considered marginal to mainstream history, nuns and canonesses in fact had a profound influence on medieval culture. Revered and admired as models of piety, they commanded considerable prestige and exercised a significant degree of political power. Whether acting as producers or patrons of art, nuns were widely celebrated for their imaginative accomplishments. Focusing on the visual culture of female monastic communities in the German Empire, Frankish Gaul, Langobard Italy, and Anglo-Saxon England, this volume underscores the richness of largely unfamiliar material and its role in shaping distinctive forms of religious life.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. vii
Foreword	p. xiii
Acknowledgments	p. xix
Introduction: Histories of Female Monasticism	p. 1
Early Monasteries and Foundations (500-1200): An Introduction	p. 13
The Time of the Orders, 1200-1500: An Introduction	p. 41
Between This World and the Next: The Art of Religious Women in the Middle Ages	p. 76
Church and Cloister: The Architecture of Female Monasticism in the Middle Ages	p. 109
"Nuns'Work," "Caretaker Institutions," and "Women's Movements": Some Thoughts About a Modern Historiography of Medieval Monasticism	p. 132
The Visionary Texts and Visual Worlds of Religious Women	p. 151
Patterns of Female Piety in the Later Middle Ages	p. 172
Time and Space: Liturgy and Rite in Female Monasteries of the Middle Ages	p. 191
Founders, Donors, and Saints: Patrons of Nuns' Convents	p. 207
Pastoral Care in Female Monasteries: Sacramental Services, Spiritual Edification, Ethical Discipline	p. 225
Household and Prayer: Medieval Convents as Economic Entities	p. 245
Wanderers Between Worlds: Visitors, Letters, Wills, and Gifts as Means of Communication in Exchanges Between Cloister and the World	p. 259
Works Cited	p. 275
Picture Credits	p. 317
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