Medieval nunneries

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VI. Abkürzungsverzeichnis 334 VII. Bibliografie 336 VIII. Register 379 IX. Abbildungsnachweise 391 6 INHALT "Auch wenn der Baumeister oder Maurer selbst weder die Steine noch die Materialien herstellt, aus denen er das Schloss oder Haus erbaut (...), so hat er doch die Materialien zusammengetragen, ihnen ihren je eigenen Platz zugewiesen, gemäß der Absicht, die er zu verwirklichen sucht. Genau so bin ich mit den Stoffen verfahren, aus denen sich meine Abhandlung zusammensetzt; mir genügt es völlig, wenn ich sie so zu verwenden weiß, dass sie der Idee, die ich entwickeln will, dienen und diese verstärken...". 1

Resumen: Durante la Baja Edad Media numerosas mujeres de la nobleza y de las oligarquías urbanas tomaron el hábito en algún monasterio. Se analizan las causas y dinámi-cas de estas profesiones, los diferentes comportamientos de las damas de dichos estamentos y las dotes, donaciones y privilegios que recibieron muchas de ellas. Estos  últimos  permitieron  a  varias  religiosas  tener  criadas,  disponer  de  bienes  propios o reducir los límites de la clausura, surgiendo problemas en numerosas ocasiones derivados de las dotes y donaciones realizadas por los familiares de la monja en cuestión.

Abstract: During  the  Late  Middle  Ages,  many  women  belonging  to  the  nobility  and  the  urban  oligarchy  took  the  habit  to  enter  a  monastery.  This  study  analyzes  the  causes and dynamics of these professions, the diverse behaviour of the ladies of these social ranks, and the dowries, donations and privileges that many of them received. Certain privileges allowed nuns to have maids, to make use of their own property or to limit enclosure. On numerous occasions, the gifts and donations made by members of the nuns’ families became an issue in the monastery.

The cemetery of Littlemore Priory, a Benedictine Nunnery, was excavated in 2014 and 91 individuals were recovered. Varying levels of truncation across the site affected the completeness of the burials. The intercutting or direct re-cutting of graves occasionally resulted in the re-internment of the previous occupant in a disarticulated state within the backfill of the later grave. There were 75 adults, three adolescents and 13 children identified from the remains. The majority of the adults were in the older age category (over 45 years). Of the adults (and one adolescent), 35 were female and 28 were male. There appeared to be no bias in the age-at-death of either sex. Stature was typical for the medieval period, as were the meric and cnemic indices. The lambdoid ossicle was the most common non-metric trait, though the incidence of non-metrics traits was generally low. Dental disease rates were within the normal range for the medieval period, although dental caries were slightly less prevalent than in other nunneries, but higher than the national average. Enamel hypoplasia was notably lower than other medieval sites and nunneries. Pathological conditions affecting bone ranged from healed blunt force trauma to congenital defects. Of note, was the low level of metabolic disease, which corresponded with the low level of dental enamel hypoplasia observed. As expected with a large number of older adults, degenerative joint disease was the most commonly observed pathology.

M o n a c h e s i m i f e m m i n i l i i n F r i u l i n e l D u e c e n t o [A stampa in Il monachesimo benedettino in Friuli in età patriarcale (Atti del Convegno internazionale di studi, Udine-Rosazzo, 18-20 novembre 1999), a cura di C. Scalon, Udine 2002 ("Studi per la storia della Chiesa in Friuli", 3), pp. 167-211 © dell'autore -Distribuito in formato digitale da "Reti Medievali"] Premessa Il titolo del mio contributo echeggia alcuni problemi storici e storiografici di questi ultimi decenni. Il soggetto intende riferirsi a gruppi di donne unite in forme di vita più o meno stabili, ufficiali e riconosciute in un modello monastico, mentre l'aggettivazione ha volutamente escluso la qualifica "benedettina" e il campo temporale è stato circoscritto al secolo XIII, nella parte friulana della diocesi patriarcale 1 . La delimitazione spaziale si fonda sulla presunzione di selezionare un ambito culturalmente e geograficamente omogeneo, quella cronologica si spiegherà da sé -mi auguro -nel corso dell'esposizione; non mi pare invece inutile dire qualcosa di più sulla specificazione di genere.

This paper analyses the role played by the female religious community of San Zaccaria in the political, social and religious context of the Venetian Dogado during the Early Middle Ages. On the one hand, by comparing the convent with the other Venetian male and female monasteries, the study clarifies that the community exercised a more or less incisive role in representing first the doge’s family, then the entire city, during a specific timeframe. On the other hand, the analysis
reveals to what extent the functions the monastery exercised were influenced by events external to the Dogado or by developments within San Zaccaria itself.

García-Fernández, “Beyond the Wall: Power, Parties, and Sex in Late Medieval Galician Nunneries”, en Mercedes Pérez Vidal (ed.), Women Religious crossing between Cloister and the World. Nunneries in Europe and the Americas, ca. 1200-1700, Leeds, Arc Humanities Press, 2022, pp. 61-86.

OPEN ACCESS: This book is available through the following e-platforms partners:
https://muse.jhu.edu/book/97696
https://www.jstor.org / https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv2gmhh4q

Die Publikation wurde im Rahmen des Projektes »Land. Wirtschaft ehemaliger und aktiver Klöster -Erbe und Tradition landwirtschaftlichen Wirkens der Klöster als Chance für den ländlichen Raum.« realisiert. KLOSTERLAND e. V. erhielt zur Umsetzung des Projektes eine Projektförderung der Landwirtschaftlichen Rentenbank. Partner: KLOSTERLAND e. V. [email protected] www.klosterland.de Bibliographische Informationen der Deutschen Bibliothek: Die Deutsche Bibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Angaben sind im Internet unter http://dnb.ddb.de abrufbar. Alle Rechte vorbehalten. Kein Teil des Werkes darf in irgendeiner Form (durch Fotografie, Mikrofilm oder ein anderes Verfahren) ohne schriftliche Genehmigung des Verlags reproduziert oder unter Verwendung elektronischer Systeme verarbeitet, vervielfältigt oder verbreitet werden.

The lost medieval convent of the Poor Clares in Breslau [since 1945 Wrocław] with its gothic furnishings and artworks used for private worship, can be envisioned from iconographical, functional, and inspired by posthumanism analysis of medieval artworks (preserved or known from archival sources), such as: the crucifix (ca 1350), five reliefs from the former main altarpiece (1360–1370); portable quadriptych (1360), panel painting featuring Virgin Mary with Child (1450); the now lost painting with the Tree of Jesse; panel painting featuring Anne of Bohemia (now lost); and a statue of a knight being interpreted as an effigy of Henry II the Pious. The reconstruction offered here delineates the characteristics of Breslau Poor Clares’ religious practices and the convent’s role in the memorializing the Silesian Piasts. The works of art, created mostly in local workshops between the mid-fourteenth to the early sixteenth centuries, are among the highest quality examples of medieval Silesian production. The iconography of objects from the church and cloister corresponds with the most important themes of Breslau Poor Clares’ pious and intellectual reflection – the cult of the Virgin Mary and Infant Jesus, Incarnation and Passion of Christ. The St Hedwig Chapel was furnished with works intended to preserve the memory of the convent’s benefactors from the Breslau Piast line; despite the many burials in the chapel, no consistent visual strategy to prolong the benefactors’ memory was introduced.

A fin de arrojar luz sobre las manifestaciones femeninas de la reforma franciscana, estas páginas analizan las fundaciones reformistas de la Orden de Santa Clara en el obispado de Córdoba entre las primeras noticias conocidas, datadas en 1465, y 1525, año de la última fundación clarisa anterior al concilio de Trento. Ofrecen una cronología que parte de las distintas fisonomías institucionales y espirituales y una fenomenología fundacional. Estos aspectos contienen claves de interés para, en un futuro, poder profundizar en sus implicaciones eclesiales, políticas y espirituales.

In order to throw light on the feminine manifestations of the Franciscan reform, these pages there analyze the foundations reformists of the Order of Santa Clara in the bishopric of Cordova between the first news known, dated in 1465, and 1525, year of the last foundation nun of the order of St Clare previous to the council of Trent. They offer a chronology that departs from the different institutional and spiritual physiognomies. These aspects contain keys of interest for, in a future, to be able to penetrate into his implications about the churches, political and spiritual.

Im Sommer 2011 hat sich Prof. Hans-Gert Roloff, der Gründer und Herausgeber von Editionen in der Kritik, dazu entschlossen, die Verantwortung für die Reihe in meine jüngeren Hände zu legen. Ich betrachte diesen Beweis seines Vertrauens als eine große Ehre, im Bewusstsein, mit seiner Erfahrung sicher nicht mithalten zu können. Als Prof. Roloff 2003 die Initiative zu diesem Rezensionsorgan ergriffen hat, war eben ein neuer Aufschwung in den Editionswissenschaften zu verzeichnen, von dem inzwischen zahlreiche Tagungen und Publikationen ein beeindruckendes Zeugnis ablegen. Seit der Veröffentlichung des ersten Bandes 2005 im WEIDLER Buchverlag Berlin hat sich unsere Reihe als einer der Schwerpunkte im Rahmen der Berliner Beiträge zur Editionswissenschaften erfolgreich etablieren können. Das ist ohne Zweifel Verdienst von Hans-Gert Roloff, dem hier im Namen aller Koordinatorinnen und Koordinatoren sowie des Verlages herzlichst gedankt sei.

Fondata nel 1192, su un percorso che collegava la piazza Grande di Modena a un'antica porta delle mura, la chiesa di San Paolo ebbe vari rifacimenti, ma conserva tuttora tracce tardoromaniche. Sul finire del Quattrocento fu affidata alle monache agostiniane di Santa Maria della Misericordia, che creeranno nei secoli il grandioso monastero ora sede universitaria e di istituti culturali. Ma soprattutto, sulla metà del Seicento la medievale chiesa esterna verrà trasformata, dall'intervento dell'architetto Cristoforo Malagola detto il Galaverna, in un tempio dalla facies barocca, nello stile del classicismo scenografico che contraddistingue tanti edifici della capitale estense.

Scratched marks (graffiti) on pots are rather rare in medieval and post-medieval pottery assemblages. An inventory of sites in Belgium and the surrounding countries  reveals that these finds occur almost only on monastic sites, and - even more specifically - that almost all those sites are nunneries. It was the occasion to make a status quaestionis of this phenomenon in Belgium and to explore its wider European context. Although his paper only explores data from north-western Europe, recent finds and publications make clear that also in other parts in Europe this phenomenon is present. Given the spread over many countries and over a period of time of more than 600 years, the custom must have had a general  application
The fact that assemblages with a frequent presence of marked pottery are almost exclusively found in female monasteries points at a use directly linked with the specific identity of nuns. The appearance of marked pottery illuminates an intriguing aspect of the use of ceramics in religious communities which transgresses sheer functionality. It reflects certain practices which can be related to subjects such as rules and codes of conduct, property, organization, mentality and specific customs.

The earliest monastic foundation in England was that of SS Peter and Paul at Canterbury, which obviously followed the traditions of Gregory the Great. In the North Irish traditions have attracted more attention, because of the significance of Iona for Lindisfarne and its dependencies, and because of the evidence provided by Bede, and by the anonymous Life of Cuthbert. In contrast to these two traditions, the influence of Merovingian monasticism has been rather less considered, and yet the Gallo-Roman and Merovingian monastic tradition was much more substantial than that of either Rome or Ireland, at least in terms of the number of early foundations, the wealth which they gained, and the surviving documentation, in terms of charters, rules and hagiography. Not surprisingly, the influence of Merovingian monasticism in England was considerable, reaching to Hexham, Ripon, Wearmouth and Jarrow. It is also well attested for more southern centres such as Bath and Barking, and it can be eas...

This is a paper for 'International Symposium 2017. Mechthild of Hackeborn’s Liber specialis gratiae: The Idea of its Middle English Translation and Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 220 (2017 September 23.).' Comparing hagiographies of the sisters of Hackeborn (Abbess Gertrude of Hackeborn and Mechthild of Hackeborn) with Vita sancta Hildegardis vigiris, I argue features of literacy activities of nuns of Helfta.

En el complejo panorama de la historia franciscana medieval se halla todavía pendiente de aclaración el problema de la denominada "Conventualidad", habitualmente defi nida en oposición a la Observancia como un estado de desvirtuación religiosa. El fi n del tópico ha de pasar por análisis documentales detenidos y, para ello, se perfi la como vía ideal el estudio de realidades religiosas y locales concretas como base de posteriores valoraciones de síntesis. Sólo así será posible ver hasta qué punto se correspondió la realidad con la imagen transmitida por la cronística observante, señalar dónde radicaron los factores explicativos de las posibles especifi cidades y qué supuso en cada caso el triunfo reformista fi nal. Es lo que pretendo con estas páginas, que además se centran en las manifestaciones femeninas del fenómeno conventual a partir de un importante monasterio de clarisas andaluz, Santa Clara de Córdoba, durante su andadura anterior a 1495, fecha en que le fue impuesto el régimen observante por los Reyes Católicos.

The following story is set in the monastery of Maria Mai in the village of Maihingen located seventy kilometers south of Nuremberg between Nordlingen and Oettingen (fig. 1 ). Here, in 1516 the fifty-year-old widow Katerina Lemmel professed as a Birgittine nun. During the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries several large Birgittine abbeys flourished in south Germany, sustaining themselves not on the basis of extensive feudal land holdings granted to them in foundation charters, but rather through the monetary participation and support of newly moneyed urban merchant families. Lemmelleft many friends and relatives behind in her native Nuremberg, including the numerous members of her father's family, the patrician lmhoffs. Her cousins managed the famed Imhoff Brothers Trading Company that dealt in domestic metal products and in exotic spices, particularly saffron. During her years in Nuremberg, Lemmel had participated in the company as a silent partner, her investments yielding substantial returns. Once at the monastery, Katerina Lemmel used these funds and other income she had amassed, to rebuild the women's convent including the cloister. Previously only two arms of the cloister walk had been constructed, and even these had fallen into disrepair. We are informed of Katerina Lemmel's initiatives and activities through the letters that she sent from the monastery to her cousin Hans V Imhoff back in Nuremberg. Beginning almost immediately after her arrival at the monastery in the summer of 1516 and ending with his death in the summer of 1522, these sixty-two letters open many windows into art, music, piety, politics, and economics on a microhistorical level (fig. 2) 1 • Of particular interest here are the rare insider insights into the planning, funding, commissioning, and complex functioning of stained glass that the missives offer, as well as the heretofore unknown documentation on the agency of late medieval nuns and their roles in fashioning, furnishing, and using their own liturgical spaces 2 . The saga of the 211 windows emerges gradually from the pages of the letters, surfacing at irregular intervals, but spanning almost the entire period of the correspondence. The story begins with a misunderstanding, or what may better be termed -a family dispute. After several exchanges in which Katerina first sounds puzzled due to a lack of information and then frustrated at her inability to access Nuremberg record books she finally confides to Hans that it has become clear to her that her brother-in-law Martin T ucher has abused the financial arrangements that she had made prior to her departure from Nuremberg. Feeling baffled and cheated, she asks him to make amends by donating stained glass for her new cloister. Eventually Martin consents and also agrees to find other donors as well as to oversee the project in Nuremberg. In reality, however, Katerina must orchestrate most matters from Maihingen through her correspondence. By the beginning of 151 8 the building of her cloister is nearing completion and we witness how she takes up the task of persuading her relatives to participate. At first gently, then more forcefully, she makes her overtures, employing several strategies: First and foremost she stresses that those who donate a window will be establishing eternal memorials for themselves. More clearly than any other source of the time, Katerina Lemmel's writings articulate all the obligations and expectations built into this systemic reciprocity, and they explain quite explicitly the ways in which the donated windows were to function as mnemonic devices to trigger intercessory prayers on behalf of the donors 3 . Secondly, Lemme I stresses the dysfunctional state of the old cloister that has fallen into disrepair and has always been lacking in proper glass windows, rendering it inadequate for its intended liturgical purposes. Thirdly, she places her own endeavor into two market contexts within the donation economy: Assuming the viewpoint of potential patrons, she compares her own project to similar efforts to

Summary, Introduction & annexes
Mit dem 10. Band der MittelalterStudien sollen aktuelle Projekte und neue Aspekte der Klosterforschung einem breiteren Publikum präsentiert werden: interdisziplinäre Grundlagenforschung, Positionen zum Umgang mit klösterlichem Erbe, Werkstattberichte aus der Arbeit an Klösterbüchern und Ausblicke auf neuartige, über das Mittelalter hinausweisende  Fragestellungen.

The Rosenberg Family founded in Český Krumlov (South Bohemia) a triple monastic complex. The double monastery of sacrosante dei genitricis perpetueque virginis Mariae was founded in 1350 right below the family castle and across the Vltava River from the town centre. The monastic church was completed in about 1358, and the community of nuns entered the new monastery in 1361, arriving from the Poor Clare nunnery in Opava, Silesia.  The quasi-monastic female community was founded “by the walls of the Franciscan monastery” in 1375 by Anne of Rosenberg  and, as is obvious from the architectural plan of the monastery, the existence of a third religious community was planned by the Rosenberg founders from the very beginning representing in the Central Europe an unique architectonic and spiritual complex also reflected by its artistic decoration.

This article analyzes the beaterios as expressions of feminine religiosity during the Middle Ages preceding the regular convents founded during the Modern Age. This is confirmed through both the role of the beaterios leading the birth of conventual female Basque life and its features within the contemporary Basque society.

This article discusses the paintings of the chapter-house of Sijena, most of which were destroyed by fire in 1936. To this end, the paper makes use of earlier photographic material, proposes a new reading of the biblical cycle, reconstructs the architectural and ornamental setting of the chapter-house and examines the historical and largely unknown liturgical context that lay behind the selection of images. The striking correspondence between the New Testament cycle at Sijena and the prefatory cycle of miniatures in the Melisende Psalter (1131–43), as well as the use in the nunnery of a liturgy based on that of the canons regular of the Holy Sepulchre and the presence of a Lignum crucis in the chapter-house, sheds light on Sijena’s links to the art and liturgy of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem and on Queen Sancha’s motives as patron of this Hospitaller foundation. Thus, we hope to present a holistic interpretation of the chapterhouse in relation to queenship, pious devotion and the evocation of the Holy Land. This ultimately points up the cross-cultural interests of the Kingdom of Aragon and its developing projection into the Mediterranean.

Uit het testament van Yde Bockes dr Harinxma van 1483 blijkt dat haar vader een pachtcontract met de zusters had afgesloten voor de boerderij op het erf waarvan het klooster tot stand moest komen. Het blijkt ook dat hij voor gezamenlijke rekening bouwmateriaal had doen aanschaffen en voor zijn ongehuwde dochter Yde een woning bij het klooster had doen optrekken. En tenslotte is kan eruit worden opgemaakt dat hij de intrede van een bastaarddochter als zuster in het convent had geregeld. Al met al lijken dat voldoende aanwijzingen dat (oude) Bocke Harinxma de eerste en voornaamste wereldlijke begunstiger van Groendijk/Sidsingawier is geweest. Te meer daar de sate Sidsingawier vanouds tot de kernbezittingen van Bocke Harinxma heeft behoord.

The Castilian Franciscanism born closely linked to the Crown. The data we have are scarce and often legendary, but they allow us to draw a first scheme of links and interests. We analyze the performances of Fernando III, closely related to those of his mother, Berenguela I, and we compare them with those that both of them realized in benefit of the Order of Preachers in order to draw the general consequences that had the promotional policies of the Mendicant Orders.

El franciscanismo castellano nació estrechamente ligado a la corona. Las noticias son escasas y con frecuencia legendarias, pero permiten perfilar un primer esquema descriptivo de los vínculos y los intereses. Analizamos las actuaciones de Fernando III, muy relacionadas con las de su madre, Berenguela I, comparándolas con las que al mismo tiempo protagonizó en beneficio de la Orden de Predicadores a fin de extraer consecuencias generales sobre las políticas de promoción de las órdenes mendicantes.

הרפורמציות פתחו פתח לתמורות ניכרות ביחסי המגדר. מאמר זה מתמקד באחת המרכזיות שבהן: ההשפעה המורכבת של ביטול מוסד הנזירות על-ידי מרטין לותר על אפשרויות הפעולה הפתוחות בפני נשים, לעומת אלה העומדות בפני גברים, בתחום הדתי. המאמר בוחן את תגובותיהן של נשים בחבלי-ארץ שהפכו לפרוטסטנטים לפירוק מנזריהן, ודן בהתמודדות של ראשי הכנסייה הקתולית עם הביקורת הלותרנית על חיי הנזירות בוועידת טרנטו (1545-1563). הוא מראה, כי למרות שהוועדה דחתה את עיקרי-האמונה הפרוטסטנטיים והדגישה את החשיבות של חיי הנזירות, בתגובה לביקורת הלותרנית היא הורתה על סגירה קפדנית של מנזרי נשים, בהותירה לנזירות מרחב פעולה צר ביותר להשתתפות בקידום מטרותיה של הכנסייה הלוחמת.

Monasteries and convents were — and still are — not only a place of worship isolated from the material world, but also organizations dealing with secular, worldly matters. Everyday goods like food and beverage had to make their way inside their walls; other goods had to leave the monasteries and convents in exchange. Any possessions outside the walls had to be administered; therefore, every religious household needed management.

En este artículo se analiza un conjunto de iglesias monásticas castellanas, todas ellas pertenecientes a la rama femenina de la Orden del Císter. Protegidas por importantes familias aristocráticas del Reino y por el propio monarca, el control que sobre estos establecimientos ejercían los promotores explica interesantes características relativas a la independencia y libertad de movimientos de que disfrutaban las monjas nobles y también algunas configuraciones arquitectónicas, especialmente el gran desarrollo de las cabeceras de sus iglesias. También se revisa, en relación con estos condicionantes, el proceso constructivo de la iglesia monástica de Las Huelgas de Burgos.