Description
Book SynopsisThis book aims to rewrite the narrative of women and power in medieval society. Based on a rich corpus of sources systematically collected for the first time it reveals female monasteries as central and economically able agents in feudal society.
With a chronological focus on the late Middle Ages, this book focuses on four powerful convents located in modern-day France, Germany, and Switzerland. Three of these institutions were aristocratic convents founded in the early Middle Ages. They were endowed with far-ranging feudal prerogatives that were largely, but not exclusively, derived from landed possessions. The fourth convent originated in the thirteenth century and disposed of a primarily monetary economy.
Observed from a longue-durée perspective, Monastic Women and Secular Economy in Later Medieval Europe reveals strategies of adaptations that allowed these different institutions to weather the significant economic changes of the late Middle Ages. Within th
Table of Contents
I Female Monasticism, Power, and Historiography – an Introduction / II The Early Medieval Background: Notre-Dame de Soissons, Buchau Abbey, and Fraumünster of Zurich / III The Worldly Dominions of Women Religious in Late Medieval Europe / IV Economic Strategists: Klingental in Basel I / V Following the Money: Klingental in Basel II / Conclusion
