Copyright

Henrike Lähnemann; Eva Schlotheuber;

Published On

2024-06-21

Page Range

pp. 9–36

Language

  • English

Print Length

28 pages

I. Enclosure

Chapter of: The Life of Nuns: Love, Politics, and Religion in Medieval German Convents (pp. 9–36)

The opening story from the 15th-century nun’s diary about their enforced flight to Braunschweig illustrates the centrality of the concept of leading a cloistered life for medieval nuns. Contrasting the makeshift arrangements during their absence with the ideal layout of a prototypical female monastic community, the chapter explores the living spaces of medieval nuns which are designed to cater for their sacred and economic needs. The visual example to close the chapter is the monumental 14th-century map from the convent of Ebstorf, which includes representations of world history as well as the physical geography of Northern Germany.

Contributors

Henrike Lähnemann

(author)
Professor of Medieval German Literature and Linguistics at University of Oxford
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1994-5157

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)
Professor of Medieval History at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3762-2818

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.