The Life of Nuns

The closeness of these sources to actual practice means they allow us a unique insight into convent life, its spiritual horizons and the material conditions which framed it, into its daily routine and into its relations with the outside world [...] This richly illustrated book has one particular merit: exceptional works such as the Ebstorf World Map, the tapestries from the convents of Heiningen and Wienhausen or the frescoes from the nuns’ choir in Wienhausen are interpreted in conjunction with the iconographic programmes of the manuscripts, material objects and written sources presented in the volume. This creates a comprehensive picture of a way of life which combines spiritual and theoretical learning with an abundance of practical knowledge [...] Thus the authors succeed in opening one new perspective after another onto the most important dimensions of spiritual life in late-medieval convents. Based on the sources which have come down to us, this account demonstrates the significance of religious women in medieval Europe and makes clear the complexity of their lives and their interaction with the social structures outside the convents. More than that: the authors also shake up another stubborn cliché. The picture of the comprehensive “crisis” experienced by the late Middle Ages, a crisis characterized by religious “decline”, is rightly countered in this history of “unheard and unherdable women” by a picture of new departures and renewal long before the start of the Reformation in the sixteenth century. This new approach allows us to conceive history beyond the classical period boundaries.