The Life of Nuns: Love, Politics, and Religion in Medieval German Convents
- Henrike Lähnemann(author)
- Eva Schlotheuber(author)
- Anne Simon (translator)
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| Title | The Life of Nuns |
|---|---|
| Subtitle | Love, Politics, and Religion in Medieval German Convents |
| Contributor | Henrike Lähnemann(author) |
| Eva Schlotheuber(author) | |
| Anne Simon (translator) | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0397 |
| Landing page | https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/OBP.0397 |
| License | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
| Copyright | Henrike Lähnemann; Eva Schlotheuber; |
| Publisher | Open Book Publishers |
| Publication place | Cambridge, UK |
| Published on | 2024-06-21 |
| ISBN | 978-1-80511-266-2 (Paperback) |
| 978-1-80511-267-9 (Hardback) | |
| 978-1-80511-268-6 (PDF) | |
| 978-1-80511-271-6 (HTML) | |
| 978-1-80511-269-3 (EPUB) | |
| 978-1-80511-424-6 (MP3) | |
| Short abstract | In the Middle Ages half of those who chose the religious life were women, yet historians have overlooked entire generations of educated, feisty, capable and enterprising nuns, condemning them to the dusty silence of the archives. What, though, were their motives for entering a convent and what was their daily routine behind its walls like? How did they think, live and worship, both as individuals and as a community? How did they maintain contact with the families and communities they had left behind? Henrike Lähnemann and Eva Schlotheuber offer readers a vivid insight into the largely unknown lives and work of religious women in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. |
| Long abstract | In the Middle Ages half of those who chose the religious life were women, yet historians have overlooked entire generations of educated, feisty, capable and enterprising nuns, condemning them to the dusty silence of the archives. What, though, were their motives for entering a convent and what was their daily routine behind its walls like? How did they think, live and worship, both as individuals and as a community? How did they maintain contact with the families and communities they had left behind? Henrike Lähnemann and Eva Schlotheuber offer readers a vivid insight into the largely unknown lives and work of religious women in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Using previously inaccessible personal diaries and letters, as well as tapestries, painting, architecture and music, the authors show that the nuns were, in fact, an active, even influential part of medieval society. They functioned as role models and engaged in spirited dialogue with other convents, with the citizens of their home towns and with the local nobility. Full of self-confidence, they organised their demanding daily lives; ran their complex convent economies as successful businesses; offered girls a comprehensive theological, musical and practical education; produced magnificent manuscripts; ministered to the convent sick and dying with homemade medicines and to family and friends with advice. Initially—and fiercely—they resisted the Reformation, only for some of the convents to survive as Protestant women’s foundations to this day. Now, for the first time in centuries, this account by Henrike Lähnemann and Eva Schlotheuber allows the voices of these remarkable women to be heard outside the cloister and to invite us into their world. |
| Print length | 210 pages (vi+204) |
| Language | English (Original) |
| Dimensions | 156 x 15 x 234 mm | 6.14" x 0.59" x 9.21" (Paperback) |
| 156 x 18 x 234 mm | 6.14" x 0.71" x 9.21" (Hardback) | |
| Weight | 416g | 14.67oz (Paperback) |
| 582g | 20.53oz (Hardback) | |
| Media | 44 illustrations |
| OCLC Number | 1442804273 |
| LCCN | 2021388889 |
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I. Enclosure
(pp. 9–36)- Henrike Lähnemann
- Eva Schlotheuber
II. Education
(pp. 37–58)- Henrike Lähnemann
- Eva Schlotheuber
III. Nuns, Family and Community
(pp. 59–80)- Henrike Lähnemann
- Eva Schlotheuber
IV. Love and Friendship
(pp. 81–102)- Eva Schlotheuber
- Henrike Lähnemann
V. Music and Reform
(pp. 103–126)- Henrike Lähnemann
- Eva Schlotheuber
VI. Reformation
(pp. 127–154)- Henrike Lähnemann
- Eva Schlotheuber
VII. Illness and Dying
(pp. 155–176)- Henrike Lähnemann
- Eva Schlotheuber
VIII. Appendix
(pp. 177–192)- Henrike Lähnemann
- Eva Schlotheuber
Henrike Lähnemann
(author)Henrike Lähnemann is the first woman to be appointed to a chair in the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages at the University of Oxford, where she teaches German literature of the Middle Ages and works on textual and visual evidence from the women’s convents of northern Germany.
Eva Schlotheuber
(author)Eva Schlotheuber is professor of Medieval History at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, where she researches and teaches on the education and lifeworld of religious women. She was the first woman to chair the Association of Historians of Germany from 2016 to 2021.
Anne Simon
(translator)Anne Simon is Associate Fellow at the Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies, University of London and retired Senior Lecturer in Mediaeval German at the University of Bristol. Her publications include The Cult of Saint Katherine of Alexandria in Late-Medieval Nuremberg: Saint and the City (Farnham 2012); Pepper for Prayer: The Correspondence of the Birgittine Nun Katerina Lemmel, ed. by Volker Schier, Corine Schleif & Anne Simon (Stockholm 2019); ‘Da ward Carolus lachen. Kaiser Karl IV., die Nürnberger Geschichtsschreibung und der Hauptmarkt Nürnbergs’, in Geschichte erzählen. Strategien der Narrativierung von Vergangenheit im Mittelalter. XXV Anglo-German Colloquium Manchester 2017, ed. by Sarah Bowden, Manfred Eikelmann, Stephen Mossman & Michael Stolz (Tübingen 2020); and ‘Aue Maria und Rosenkranz als Gebetunterweisung im spӓtmittelalterlichen Nürnberg’, in Lehren, Lernen und Bilden in der deutschen Literatur des Mittelalters. XXIII. Anglo-German Colloquium (Nottingham 2013), ed. by Henrike Lähnemann, Nicola McLelland & Nine Miedema (Tübingen 2017).