Nuns As Historians In Early Modern Germany Hardcover

Charlotte Woodford

The literary history of early modern German convents is a much neglected field. Nuns' writings were rarely printed and generally only read within their institution. In this study - the first to highlight the significance of this large body of writing - Charlotte Woodford provides an overview of nuns' literary activities in this period, an examination of how the tradition of monastic history became established in convents, and the variety of ways in which it permitted women to express their creativity. Bringing together for the first time a significant collection of primary source material, Nuns as Historians in Early Modern Germany also includes a number of illuminating case studies, such as a biography of a fifteenth-century visionary, a prioress's diary, and an abbess's chronicle from the Thirty Years' War. It also offers a valuable reassessment of Caritas Pirckheimer's memoirs, written during the Reformation.

9780199256716

English

Oxford University Press, USA

05 Dec 2002

246

Woodford's study is an invaluable guide to German convent writing. Thanks to her efforts, scholars can now compare the works of these Catholic writers with similar histories in Protestant religious communities and with the religious writing of other early modern women. * Renaissance Quarterly * Woodford's meticulously researched study magnificently illuminates this unknown corpus of historical convent writing and ably delineates the nuanced approaches their authors adopted towards the past. * Renaissance Quarterly * Charlotte Woodford's monograph is a major contribution to the emerging literature on convent writing and historical narration in the German empire. * Renaissance Quarterly *