Thoth distribution@thoth.pub 20260408T062648

urn:uuid:918e76d5-a51f-4698-a3b4-87672329413d 03 01 01 urn:uuid:918e76d5-a51f-4698-a3b4-87672329413d 15 9781805112686 06 10.11647/OBP.0397 00 EB E107 10 Creative Commons License 02 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ 01 01 The Life of Nuns Love, Politics, and Religion in Medieval German Convents 1 A01 21 0000-0002-1994-5157 Henrike Lähnemann 2 A01 21 0000-0003-3762-2818 Eva Schlotheuber 3 B06 Anne Simon 01 eng 00 210 03 04 BX4220.G3 20 Germany 12 HBLC1 10 HIS037010 B2 History 93 NHDJ B2 Archaeology and Religion 93 JBSF1 12 JFSJ1 20 Nuns 10 REL033000 B2 European Studies 93 JBSR 12 JFSR 20 Medieval society 10 REL084000 B2 European Studies: German Studies 12 HRAM2 93 QRAM2 20 Reformation 20 Convent life B2 Women and Gender Studies 20 Archival research 03 00 In the Middle Ages half of those who chose the religious life were women, yet historians have overlooked entire generations of educated, feisty, capable and enterprising nuns, condemning them to the dusty silence of the archives. What, though, were their motives for entering a convent and what was their daily routine behind its walls like? How did they think, live and worship, both as individuals and as a community? How did they maintain contact with the families and communities they had left behind?Henrike Lähnemann and Eva Schlotheuber offer readers a vivid insight into the largely unknown lives and work of religious women in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Using previously inaccessible personal diaries and letters, as well as tapestries, painting, architecture and music, the authors show that the nuns were, in fact, an active, even influential part of medieval society. They functioned as role models and engaged in spirited dialogue with other convents, with the citizens of their home towns and with the local nobility. Full of self-confidence, they organised their demanding daily lives; ran their complex convent economies as successful businesses; offered girls a comprehensive theological, musical and practical education; produced magnificent manuscripts; ministered to the convent sick and dying with homemade medicines and to family and friends with advice. Initially—and fiercely—they resisted the Reformation, only for some of the convents to survive as Protestant women’s foundations to this day.Now, for the first time in centuries, this account by Henrike Lähnemann and Eva Schlotheuber allows the voices of these remarkable women to be heard outside the cloister and to invite us into their world. 04 00 Prologue: Voices from the Past I. Enclosure 1. The Nuns’ Flight 2. The Convent Living Space 3. The Ebstorf World Map II. Education 1. The Convent as School 2. The Convent as Cultural and Educational Space 3. The Heiningen Philosophy Tapestry III. Nuns, Family, and Community 1. Life History and Family Influence 2. The Family and the Convent Community 3. Representation and Status IV. Love and Friendship 1. Friendship Beyond Convent Walls 2. The Idea of Friendship 3. Christ Embracing John the Evangelist as Spiritual Bridehood V. Music and Reform 1. Secular Songs while Breaking Flax 2. Convent Reform 3. Music Instruction in Kloster Ebstorf VI. Reformation 1. The Papal Legate Arrives in Town 2. Convents during the Reformation 3. A Vision of the Reformation VII. Illness and Dying 1. Death in the Community 2. Medicinal Knowledge and the Rituals of Dying 3. This World and the Next in the Wienhausen Nuns’ Choir VIII. Appendix 1. Convent Histories 2. Schematic Representations of Convent Life 3. Glossary of Terms 4. List of Illustrations 5. Sources and Secondary Literature Index 20 00 Open Access Open Book Publishers 01 Open Book Publishers Cambridge, UK 04 01 20240621 13 15 9781805112679 09 Open Book Publishers 29 Publisher's website: download the title https://books.openbookpublishers.com/10.11647/obp.0397.pdf 99 01 09 Open Book Publishers 02 Publisher's website: web shop https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/OBP.0397 99 01