Nuns’ Literacies in Medieval Europe: The Hull Dialogue

• Medieval & Renaissance History (c.500-1500)
• Women's orders (nunneries, beguinages etc.)
• Literacy

"In vier Sektionen präsentieren siebzehn Forscherinnen und Forscher ihre Erkenntnisse über Lese- und Schreibpraktiken in mittelalterlichen europäischen Frauenkonventen. So entsteht eine breite Palette von Fallstudien unterschiedlicher Größe und Ausrichtung, die insgesamt ein ungemein vielfältiges und breites Bild nicht nur der Schriftkultur, sondern des weiblichen Religiosentums insgesamt ergeben - der Plural "Literacies" im Titel ist wegweisend für den ganzen Band." (Cordelia Hess, in: Sehepunkte, Ausgabe 14 (2014), Nr. 7/8)

"Bringing together in this volume studies on medieval nuns at religious houses in eight countries and integrating work by scholars in many disciplines (who deal with archival sources in seven languages) is a broad and ambitious undertaking. The book lays the groundwork for future studies of the thousands of manuscripts and documents left by nuns in the Middle Ages. The approaches to studying them, the array of issues addressed, and an extensive bibliography make this volume an essential part of any introduction to medieval women and their books." (Anne- winston-Allen, in: Manuscripta, 58.1, 2014, p. 138-142)

"This fascinating collection advances our knowledge of medieval nuns' literacy, but shows that it is still uneven." (Alexandra Barratt, in: Parergon, 31.2, 2014, p. 143-144)

"This beautifully produced and generously illustrated volume brings together seventeen essays and an introduction from scholars working on the broad question of northern European nuns’ literacies and literary habits across the medieval period. (...) Bringing together so many approaches and critical traditions can create some difficulty in presentation and organization: my one criticism of the collection concerns the overwhelmingly dense footnotes in the introduction, for instance, and in several of the essays. In these cases the footnotes are used to provide exhaustive bibliographic information — useful and important, certainly, but potentially distracting and overwhelming on the page. As the intent of many of the footnotes seems to be to demonstrate the range of the field and the critical conversations in which the chapters intervene, a larger bibliography organized thematically around questions for “further reading” might have been more effective. But this is a small criticism and shouldn’t detract from the many accomplishments of this rich and multiply diverse collection. Bridging national, geographic, and historical boundaries, these essays are a welcome addition to ongoing scholarship on female literacy, convent scribal and literary activity, and medieval religious practices." (Jacqueline Jenkins, in Speculum 91/1, 2016, p. 178-180)

"Ce volume d'actes bien conçu autour d'un projet de recherche ambitieux et innovant est une réussite. (...) The Hull Dialogue ouvre des perspectives heuristiques pour les médiévistes qui se consacrent à l'histoire des femmes. Il intéressera aussi les historiens du livre, de l'enseignement, de la vie religieuse et de la culture au sens large. Quant à l'histoire du genre, Nun's Literacies nuance les clichés tenaces de la misogynie des clercs. Même si le paternalisme affleure, plusieurs cas présentés ici montrent un respect mutuel et une collaboration effective. On attend avec impatience et curiosité les deux volumes suivants." (Thérèse de Hemptinne, in: Revue Mabillon, n.s. 26, 2015, p.338-339)

"The two volumes that have appeared so far are marvelous ones. They are consistently solid reassessments of nun’s literacies and the association of such women with both practical literacy and book culture. The third volume promises to be so as well. Together the series revolutionizes our thinking about nuns’ literacy; there will no longer be any excuse to cite Eileen Power on this. These volumes and the more than fifty articles included within all three, along with insightful introductions, full bibliographies and lists of manuscripts, useful indices, many illustrations and even some color plates, are impressive publications. More importantly is their major achievement in totally changing what we know about nuns’ literacies! Brilliant!" (Constance H. Berman, in: Analecta Cisterciensia 65 (2015) 392 – 410)

« Cette publication est remarquable. » (Paulette L’Hermite-Leclercq, dans Le Moyen Age, 122/1, 2016, p. 128)

“L’insieme di questi tre volumi (…) rappresenta senza dubbio un valido strumento per chi desidera conoscere lo stato attuale della ricerca attraverso un’articolata serie di studi che rappresentano una molteplicità di punti di vista e gettano luce sull’argomento esplorando a tutto tondo le testimonianze disponibili.” (Roberto Gamberini, in Studi Medievali, LIX/2, 2018, p. 780)