Description
Book Synopsis2020 Collaborative ProjectAwardby the Society for the Study of Early ModernWomenandGenderWomen and Community in Medieval and Early Modern Iberia draws on recent research to underscore the various ways Iberian women influenced and contributed to their communities, engaging with a broader academic discussion of women's agency and cultural impact in the Iberian Peninsula. By focusing on women from across the socioeconomic and religious spectrumelite, bourgeois, and peasant Christian women, Jewish, Muslim, converso, and Morisco women, and married, widowed, and single womenthis volume highlights the diversity of women's experiences, examining women's social, economic, political, and religious ties to their families and communities in both urban and rural environments. Comprised of twelve essays from both established and new scholars, Women and Community in Medieval and Early Modern Iberia showcases groundbreaking work on premodern women, revealing the complex intersections between gender
Trade Review"This is a fascinating volume, showcasing the archival riches available to those interested in pursuing similar questions. Given the strength of the individual essays in this volume as well as the lively dialogue between them, this volume would be a wonderful addition to an upper-division undergraduate or graduate course in premodern women's and/or gender history."—Debra Blumenthal,
Early Modern Women: An Interdisciplinary Journal"This is a riveting collection of essays that give the reader a chance to get a glimpse of the lives of various women living in the early modern Period in various parts of the Iberian Peninsula."—Tatevik Gyulamiryan,
Hispania"This collection of 12 essays significantly adds to the growing body of literature that explores the myriad networks through which medieval and early modern European women engaged and exercised agency within their societies’ patriarchal structures."—J. Harrie,
Choice"This essay collection will be of interest to specialists and scholars of European women and gender, but it is equally worthy of consideration for students. The contributors present self-reflective and thoughtful explanations of a vast array of sources and historical methods of interpretation particularly suitable for classroom discussion."—Hayley R. Bowman,
Comitatus“This well-conceived volume gathers and fruitfully juxtaposes fresh material from many sites and communities and provides an entrée into the specialized research of a rich range of scholars. Many essays also suggest comparative links to developments not only within Iberia but beyond it. Altogether the collection makes a distinctive and valuable contribution to the history of European women before 1700.”—Elizabeth S. Cohen, coauthor of
Daily Life in Renaissance Italy“The collection brings together an amazing array of research that investigates how Iberian women understood and constituted communities. . . . It will be particularly valuable for students as a way of discussing methodology: the range of sources represented in the collection and the authors’ careful explanation of these sources will be great for teaching.”—Elizabeth A. Lehfeldt, author of
Religious Women in Golden Age Spain: The Permeable CloisterTable of ContentsContents
List of Tables
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Contextualizing Women, Agency, and Communities in Premodern Iberia
Michelle Armstrong-Partida, Alexandra Guerson, and Dana Wessell Lightfoot
Part 1. Community Networks and Economic Agency
1. Credit and Connections: Jewish Women between Communities in Vic, 1250–1350
Sarah Ifft Decker
2. Challenges Facing Mallorcan Conversas after 1391
Natalie Oeltjen
3. Death and Gender in Late Sixteenth-Century Toledo
Grace E. Coolidge
Part 2. Challenging Communal Ties
4. Women, Injurious Words, and Clerical Violence in Fourteenth-Century Catalunya
Michelle Armstrong-Partida
5. Women, Violence, and Community in Late Medieval Valencia
Mark Meyerson
6. Mixed Marriages and Community Identity in Fifteenth-Century Girona
Alexandra Guerson and Dana Wessell Lightfoot
7. In Defense of Community: Morisca Women in Sixteenth-Century Valladolid
Stephanie M. Cavanaugh
Part 3. Institutional Relationships and Creating Communities
8. Looking for a Way to Survive: Community and Institutional Assistance to Widows in Medieval Barcelona
Mireia Comas-Via
9. Founders, Sisters, and Neighbors in the Thirteenth Century: Women and Community at Santa Maria de Celas, Coimbra
Miriam Shadis
10. Scandal and the Social Networks of Religious Women
Michelle M. Herder
11. Minerva of Her Time: Luisa Sigea and Humanist Networking
Rachel F. Stapleton
12. So That They Will Remember Me: Seroras and Their Testaments in the Early Modern Basque Country
Amanda L. Scott
Conclusion: Iberian Women and Communities across Time
Allyson M. Poska
Contributors
Index
