Table Of ContentWomen’s Lives in Medieval Europe
Long considered to be a definitive and truly groundbreaking collection of sources, Women’s
Lives in Medieval Europe uniquely presents the everyday lives and experiences of women in
the Middle Ages. This indispensible text has now been thoroughly updated and expanded
to reflect new research, and includes previously unavailable source material.
Emilie Amt brings together public and private records, letters, laws, historical and
personal narratives, and archaeological evidence from across medieval Europe, spanning
the fifth to the fifteenth century, examining how women from all ranks of society lived.
Working within a multi-cultural framework, the book focuses not just on the Christian
majority, but also presents material about women in minority groups in Europe, such as
Jews, Muslims, and those considered to be heretics.
This new edition includes expanded sections on marriage and sexuality, and on
peasant women and townswomen, as well as a new section on women and the law. There
are brief introductions both to the period and to the individual documents, study ques-
tions to accompany each reading, a glossary of terms and a fully updated bibliography.
Incorporating the laws, regulations and religious texts that shaped the way women lived
their lives, and personal narratives by and about medieval women, the book is unique
in examining women’s lives through the lens of daily activities, and in doing so as far as
possible through the voices of women themselves.
Emilie Amt is the Hildegarde Pilgram Professor of History at Hood College in Mary-
land, where she studies medieval religious women and twelfth- and thirteenth-century
English government. Her books include Medieval England 1000–1500: A Reader (2000), and
The Accession of Henry II in England: Royal Government Restored, 1149–1159 (1993).
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Women’s Lives in
Medieval Europe
A Sourcebook
Second Edition
Edited by Emilie Amt
First published 1993
by Routledge New York
Second edition published 2010
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneouly published in the US
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2010 Emilie Amt
Typeset in Baskerville by
Bookcraft Ltd, Stroud, Gloucestershire
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN10: 0-415-46684-9 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0-415-46683-0 (pbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-415-46684-4 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-415-46683-7 (pbk)
For Amy Gottfried, Lisa Algazi, and Jennifer Ross
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Contents
Acknowledgements xi
Introduction 1
A note on money 7
I The heriTage of ideas 9
A. Christian belief 10
1. The Bible: Adam and Eve (1st millennium bc) 10
2. The Bible: Model women in the Gospels (1st c. ad) 12
3. The Bible: Epistles of St. Paul (1st c. ad) 14
4. St. Jerome: Virginity and marriage (4th c. ad) 17
5. St. Augustine of Hippo: On the good of marriage (ca. ad 401) 19
B. Roman ideals 21
6. Funeral eulogy of Turia (1st c. bc) 21
7. Seneca: Letter to his mother (1st c. ad) 22
8. Laws of the Roman Empire (3rd–6th c. ad) 24
C. Germanic custom 26
9. Tacitus: The Germans (ad 98) 26
10. Laws of the Salian Franks (6th c. ad) 27
II Women and The laW 33
11. Cáin Adamnáin: Irish law of women (7th c.) 34
12. Gratian: Canon law on marriage (12th c.) 35
13. Decrees of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) 38
14. Norman laws (early 13th c.) 40
15. Laws of Sicily (1231) 45
16. Spanish laws (13th c.) 52
17. Customs of Magdeburg (13th c.) 60
18. London crimes and punishments (14th c.) 61
19. Sumptuary laws (13th–14th c.) 63
III marriage, sex, childbirTh, and healTh 67
20. Theodore’s penitential (ca. 690) 68
21. The life of Christina of Markyate: Christina’s rebellion (12th c.) 71
viii Contents
22. Liturgy for the marriage service (11th–16th c.) 75
23. Manorial court rolls: Unfree women’s marriages (13th–14th c.) 79
24. Holy Maidenhood: A debate on marriage (13th c.) 80
25. Episcopal court records: Elizabeth Lovell sues her husband (1326–8) 83
26. Dowry practices in Italy (14th c.) 85
27. The householder of Paris: Manual for his wife (ca. 1392) 86
28. Liturgy for mothers (11th–16th c.) 95
29. The Trotula: On the conditions of women (12th c.) 95
30. Hildegard of Bingen: Medical writings (12th c.) 100
31. University of Paris records: Case of a woman physician (1322) 103
IV nobleWomen’s lives 107
32. Gregory of Tours: The story of Ingitrude and Berthegund (6th c.) 108
33. Dhuoda: Manual for her son (841–3) 110
34. Anglo-Saxon wills (10th–11th c.) 114
35. Autobiography of Guibert de Nogent: Life of his mother (11th–12th c.) 118
36. Matilda of Stickney: Land grants (ca. 1170–98) 123
37. The roll of ladies and boys and girls (1185) 125
38. The Book of the Knight of the Tower (1371) 127
39. Leonor López de Córdoba: Autobiography (14th–15th c.) 131
40. Cristina Corner: Petition for exemption from sumptuary laws (15th c.) 134
41. Christine de Pizan: Autobiographical writing (1405) 135
42. Household accounts of Dame Alice de Bryene (1412–13) 138
43. Margaret Paston: Letters to her husband (15th c.) 141
44. A manor house: Ightham Mote (ca. 1340) 144
V PeasanT Women’s lives 147
45. Working women on Frankish royal estates (6th–8th c.) 148
46. Legal status of German peasants (11th c.) 148
47. Women farmworkers’ duties (ca. 1270) 150
48. Survey of Alwalton: Lands and obligations (1279) 151
49. Manorial court rolls (14th c.) 152
50. Coroners’ records: Unexpected deaths (13th–14th c.) 155
51. Peasant dwellings 158
VI ToWnsWomen’s lives 161
52. Parisian guild regulations (13th c.) 162
53. Veronese civic statutes (1276) 164
54. Lawsuit: Women moneylenders (1281) 165
55. Apprenticeship documents (13th–14th c.) 166
56. Business contracts (13th–15th c.) 168
57. Infractions of commercial regulations (13th–14th c.) 170
58. Parisian maids and nurses (1351) 174
59. Guardians’ accounts: Raising girls (14th c.) 175
Contents ix
60. London prostitutes (14th c.) 176
61. An Italian servant girl (1465–9) 178
62. Town houses (13th–14th c.) 179
vii religious lives 181
63. Church council decrees (5th–6th c.) 182
64. Caesarius of Arles: Rule for nuns (ca. 512–34) 183
65. Simeon of Durham: Segregated churches (7th–11th c.) 190
66. Gilbertine women’s worship (12th c.) 192
67. Hildegard of Bingen: Letter to her nuns (12th c.) 193
68. The rule of St. Clare (1253) 195
69. Eudes of Rouen: Visitations of nunneries (13th c.) 201
70. The Ancrene Riwle (13th c.) 206
71. Description of the Beguines of Ghent (1328) 213
72. Accounts of nuns entering Italian convents (14th–15th c.) 216
73. The book of Margery Kempe: Pilgrimage to the Holy Land (15th c.) 218
74. Athanasios Chalkeopoulos: Southern Italian visitations (1457) 222
75. Plans of religious communities (12th–13th c.) 227
viii JeWish, muslim, and hereTic Women 229
A. Jewish women 230
76. Hebrew chronicles: Massacres of Jews during the First Crusade (1096) 230
77. Maimonides: The Book of Women (12th c.) 233
78. Judah Asheri: Family history (13th–14th c.) 237
79. Eleazar of Mainz: Moral instruction for his family (14th c.) 238
80. Jewish sumptuary laws (15th c.) 239
81. A marital question: An innkeeper’s wife leaves home (ca. 1470) 240
B. Muslim women 243
82. The Qur’an (7th c.) 243
83. Lawsuit in Sicily (973) 246
84. Market regulations at Seville (12th c.) 247
C. Heretic women 249
85. Descriptions of heretics: Waldensian women’s activities (13th c.) 249
86. Inquisition records of Jacques Fournier: Life of a Cathar woman (1320) 250
87. Confession of a Lollard woman (1430) 255
Glossary 258
Further reading 263
Index 271
