Blamires, Alcuin, ed; Pratt, Karen ed.; Marx, C.W. ed., Woman Defamed and Woman Defended: An Anthology of Medieval Texts (Oxford: Oxford University Press)
Text name(s):
Number of pages of primary source text: 275
Author(s):
- Abelard, Peter
- Albertano da Brescia
- Ambrose
- Anselm of Canterbury
- Aquinas, Thomas
- Aristotle
- Augustine of Hippo
- Boccaccio, Giovanni
- Capellanus, Andreas
- Chaucer, Geoffrey
- Christine de Pizan
- Gower, John
- Gratian
- Heloise
- Isidore of Seville
- Jacques de Vitry
- Jean de Meun
- Map, Walter
- Marbod of Rennes
- Ovid
- Strassburg, Gottfried Von
Dates: 0 - 1450
Archival Reference:
Original Language(s):
- English - Middle English
- French - Old French
- German
- Greek
- Italian
- Latin
Translation:
- Translated into English.
Translation Comments:
Geopolitical Region(s):
- England
- France
- Germany
- Italy
County/Region:
Record Types:
- Law - Canon Law
- Letter
- Literature - Prose
- Literature - Verse
- Memoir
- Monastic Rule
- Oration
- Philosophic Work
- Scripture
- Sermons
- Theology
- Treatise - Instruction/Advice
- Treatise - Scientific/Medical
Subject Headings:
- Art
- Church Fathers
- Classics / Humanism
- Family / Children
- Law - Canon
- Literature - Comedy / Satire
- Material Culture: Food, Clothing, Household
- Philosophy / Theology
- Science / Technology
- Women / Gender
Apparatus:
- Index
- Bibliography
- Introduction
Comments:
This anthology brings together many texts written on women during classical antiquity and the Middle Ages, addressing their social, theological, political, and philosophical implications. It provides a broad sampling of different types of text: verse, prose, legal texts, literary works, letters, scientific treatises, and it also includes images. This introductory survey of primary sources relating to is particularly useful to an ungergraduate audience for a broad sense of the roles of and attitudes towards women in the Middle Ages. It also contributes to the ongoing scholarly “debate on women” in the Middle Ages, still striving for an answer to the question of whether, or to what extent, women were in fact “defamed and defended.” Includes a bibliography of helpful primary and secondary sources.
Introduction Summary:
The brief (16 pp) introduction discusses the classical roots of medieval misogyny and its wide ranging presence in medieval Christianity. The editor does note, however, that there were also many voices, even in the Early Middle Ages, which sought to defend women from the charges leveled against them. Each section is also accompanied by a brief introduction which provides some historical and social context.
Cataloger: MCB
