D.H. Green, Women Readers in the Middle Ages

D.H. Green,  Women Readers in the Middle Ages, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, coll. "Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature" n° 65, 2008,  312p. 

Hardback Isbn (ean13): 9780521879422.

Recension de cet ouvrage par Jennifer Wynne Hellwarth (Allegheny College) dans The Medieval Review: TMR 2008.10.09

Présentation de l'éditeur:

Throughout the Middle Ages, the number of female readers was far greater than is commonly assumed. D. H. Green shows that, after clerics and monks, religious women were the main bearers of written culture and its expansion. Moreover, laywomen played a vital part in the process whereby the expansion of literacy brought reading from religious institutions into homes, and increasingly from Latin into vernacular languages. This study assesses the various ways in which reading was practised between c.700 and 1500 and how these differed from what we mean by reading today. Focusing on Germany, France and England, it considers the different categories of women for whom reading is attested (laywomen, nuns, recluses, semi-religious women, heretics), as well as women's general engagement with literature as scribes, dedicatees, sponsors, and authors. This fascinating study opens up the world of the medieval woman reader to new generations of scholars and students.

 Extrait au format PDF (157KB) 

Sommaire:

List of illustrations page vi
Acknowledgments viii
Abbreviations x
List of manuscript sigla xiv
Introduction 1 1 The Bible debate 6 2 Censorship 37 3 The translators 68 4 The canonical scriptures 83 5 The English prologues 103 6 The text 137 7 The effects 189
Appendix 1 Contents of the Wycliffite Bible 199
Appendix 2 Additions and select emendations to Forshall and Madden's edition of the Wycliffite Bible 210
Appendix 3 Textual scholarship: select readings 222
Appendix 4 Descriptions of select Wycliffite Bible manuscripts 235
Select bibliography 267
Index of manuscripts of the Wycliffite Bible 281
General index 30