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Internet Medieval Sourcebook

Selected Sources: Sex and Gender

Contents

• Women's Roles
  • General
  • Women in Religion
  • Women as Writers
  • Women in Politics
  • Noblewomen
  • "Middle" Class Women
  • Towns Women
  • Peasant Women
  • Jewish Women
  • Women at Home
  • Women at Work Outside the Home
  • Women in Business Activities
  • Woman and Misogyny
• Men's Roles
• Constructions of Sexuality and Gender
  • General
  • Legal Control of Sexualuty
  • Theological Norms
  • Homoerotic/Transgendered Subcultures
• Marriage
  • General
  • Theology
  • Law and Marriage
  • Married Lives

• General
  • WEB
• Women in Religion
  • WEB Monastic Matrix [At St Andrews]
    A collection of resources for the study of women's religious communities, 500-1500. This includes a database of 1146 women's communities and a Documents page, with documents from women's communities at Laycock (13th century), San Sisto (13th century), Santa Francesca Romana (15th century).
  • Socrates Scholasticus: The Murder of Hypatia.
    A leading female philosopher, Hypatia was murdered by a Christian mob in Alexandria, urged on by St. Cyril.
  • Gregory of Nyssa (c.335-d.c.395): Life of Macrina, trans. W.K. Lowther Clarke. Full text.
    One of the most important lives of a female saint. This is an account of Gregory's strongminded sister, Macrina (c.327-379).
  • Life of Matrona of Perge, d.c. 510-515, trans Khalifa Ben Nasser, [full text of Metaphrastic Life: selections from Vita Prima].
    An example of a "transvestite" saint who was also a historical figure.
  • Holy Women of Byzantium: Ten Saints' Lives in English Translation To access chapter files individually see here [Was At Dumbarton Oaks, now Internet Archive] 
    Complete texts of translations of female saints lives.
    The texts are all in PDF form.
    • Front Matter, General Introduction, Acknowledgments, List of Abbreviations
    • A. Nuns Disguised as Monks
      • 1. Life of St. Mary/Marinos / translated by Nicholas Constas
      • 2. Life of St. Matrona of Perge / Jeffrey Featherstone and Cyril Mango /
    • B. Female Solitaries
      • 3. Life of St. Mary of Egypt / Maria Kouli
      • 4. Life of St. Theoktiste of Lesbos / Angela C. Hero /
    • C. Cenobitic Nuns
      • 5. Life of St. Elisabeth the Wonderworker / Valerie Karras
      • 6. Life of St. Athanasia of Aegina / Lee Francis Sherry
      • 7. Life of St. Theodora of Thessalonike / Alice-Mary Talbot
    • D. Pious Housewives
      • 8. Life of St. Mary the Younger / Angeliki E. Laiou
      • 9. Life of St. Thomaïs of Lesbos / Paul Halsall
    • E. A Saintly Empress
      • 10. Life of St. Theodora of Arta / Alice-Mary Talbot
• The Life of Liutberga, 9th Century, trans, Jo Ann McNamara. Full text.
• Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend (Aurea Legenda) 1275, As englished by William Caxton, 1483
  The full text of the 7 volume Temple Classics edition, available in large volume files, and individual feast/saint files, inlcuding a number of women saints.
• Life of Irene, Abbess of the Convent of Chrysobalanton, trans. Jan Olof Rosenqvist.
• Life of Mary the Younger, d.c. 903, trans Paul Halsall, [First five chapters, and concluding prayer].
• Byzantine Monastic Foundation Documents [Was At Dumbarton Oaks, now Internet Archive]
  A Complete Translation of the Surviving Founder's Typika and Testaments. Edited by John Thomas and Angela Constantinides Hero with the assistance of Giles Constable. To access chapter files individually see here
• Ancrene Wisse, In Middle English, with some Latin. [At Google Books]
  A collection of rules and advice for English nuns.
• Rule of the Lady Hospitallers of the Royal Monastery of Sigena, 1188, in Latin, [At Internet Archive, from Kansas]
  The Royal Monastery of Sigena was an institution of Lady Hospitallers and enjoyed a great deal of independence and influence. It would appear that its Rule was the work of Sancha, Queen of Aragon.
• Women as Writers
  • WEB Bibliography of Works by and About Women Writers of the Middle Ages (Robbins Library)
  • WEB Epistolæ: Medieval Women's Letters [At Columbia] [Internet Archive backup here]
    Epistolæ is a collection of medieval Latin letters to and from women. The letters collected here date from the 4th to the 13th centuries, and they are presented in their original Latin as well as in English translation.
  • Egeria. Description of the Liturgical Year in Jerusalem: Translation [At Oxford]
  • Egeria (4th Century): Journal of the Jerusalem Liturgical Year [Latin and English][At Oxford]
  • Egeria: Description of the Liturgical Year in Jerusalem: Translation 4th Century [At Oxford]
  • Egeria: Travelogue, Translated by M.L. McClure, The Pilgrimage of Etheria, (New York, 1915) [At Internet Archive, was at Yale]
  • Egeria: The Pilgrimage of Etheria, ed. and trans M.L. McClure and C. L. Feltoe, London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1919. [At CCEL]
  • Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim (c.930/40-c-2): St. John. [At Internet Archive, from Millersville]
    See also Catholic Enclopedia: Hroswitha
  • Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim (c.930/40-c.1002): The Plays of Roswitha
  • Hrotsvitha, ca. 935-ca. 975: The plays of Roswitha translated by Christopher St. John, with an inroduction by Cardinal Gasquet and a critical preface by the translator.(London, Chatto & Windus, 1923) [repr. 1966]  [Internet Archive]
    Including Full texts of Gallicanus and Dulcitius
  • Huneberc of Heidenheim: The Hodoeporican of St. Willibald, 8th Century
  • Huneberc of Heidenheim. Prologue to the Hodoeporicon of St. Willibald. c. 750-75CE. Alternate trans. by Thomas Head
  • Anna Comnena (1083-after 1048): The Alexiad. [Full text]
    The account of her father, the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I, by Princess Anna Comnena is perhaps the most important historical work by a woman writer written before the modern period.
  • Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179): Lyrics, Latin and English. [Was At irupert, now Internet Archive].
  • Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179): Visions from Scivias, English. [At Columbia] [Internet Archive version here] 
  • WEB See also the Hildegard of Bingen page [At Internet Archive, from Millersville]; and the Catholic Encyclopedia article.
  • Heloise: Letter to Abelard, trans. C.K. Scott Moncrief. The text is also available in Latin. [At Georgetown]
  • St. Clare of Assisi (1194-1253): Letters to St. Agnes of Prague [At MIT] [Internet Archive version here] 
  • Hadewijch of Antwerp, d.c. 1260. [Wikiquote]
    The page contains links to five of her letters and four of her poems.
  • Marguerite Porète: The Mirror of Simple Souls, (written 1296/1306) PDF [At Internet Archive]
    Porète's book, a mystic account of the ascent of the soul, was condemned in 1306, and was burned in her presence!
  • Marguerite Porète: The Mirror of Simple Souls, (written 1296/1306), Chaps 119-122. PDF [At Colorado] [Internet Archive version here]
  • Marguerite Porète: The Mirror of Simple Souls, (written 1296/1306), Chaps 1-14. [At Kenyon] [Internet Archive version here]
    
  • Catherine of Siena (1347-1380): Dialogue of the Seraphic Virgin, 1370, full text now available [At CCEL].
  • Angela, of Foligno, 1248?-1309. The book of divine consolation of the Blessed Angela of Foligno, Translated from the Italian by Mary G. Steegmann. Introd. by Algar Thorold.(London, Chatto and Windus; New York, Duffield & co., 1909)
  • WEB Christine de Pizan Digital Scriptorium [Johns Hopkins]
  • Christine de,Pizan (c.1363-c.1431): The book of the Duke of true lovers: now first translated from the Middle French of Christine de Pisan ; with an introduction by Alice Kemp-Welch ; the ballads rendered into the original metres by... (London : Chatto and Windus, 1908) [Project Gutenberg]
  • Christine de Pizan: Treasure of the City of Ladies (1405), full text in French [Project Gutenberg]
  • Christine de Pizan: Treasure of the City of Ladies (1405), full text in English [Internet Archive borrow facility]
    • How ladies and young women who live on their manors ought to manage their households and estates, [At Internet Archive, from Millersville]
  • WEB Julian of Norwich Page. [At Luminarium]
  • Julian of Norwich: Shewings [Full Text] See also Catholic Encycloped-Juliana of Norwich
  • The Book of Margery Kempe [At TEAMS]
  • Margery Kempe: The Book of Margery Kempe: The Birth of Her First Child and Her First Vision. [At luminarium.org]
    WEB see the Luminarium: Margery Kempe Page [with a picture of Margery]
  • Margery Kempe: The Book of Margery Kempe: Her Pride and Attempts to Start a Business. [At luminarium.org]
  • Margery Kempe: The Book of Margery Kempe: Margery and Her Husband Reach a Settlement. [At luminarium.org]
  • Margery Kempe: The Book of Margery Kempe: Pilgrimmage to Jerusalem. [At luminarium.org]
  • Margery Kempe: Treatise of Contemplation, from her Book as reprinted in The Cell of Self-Knowledge. [At CCEL]
    For many centuries this was the only well-known part of Margery's writing.
  • Margery Kempe (1413-1415): Book of Margery Kempe. (Text--Butler-Bowden translation of Chapter 26-34, 37-41) [At Internet Archive was at Traveling to Jerusalem/U Sth Colorado]
  • Marie de France: Lays. [Project Gutenberg]
• Women in Politics
  • Regino of Prüm: Canon 19 on Women in Law Courts (early 10th century), trans Charles West. [At Turbulent Priests] [Internet Archive version here]
  • Peter of Blois: Letter 154, to Queen Eleanor, 1173, trans. M. Markowski
  • Johann Nider: On Joan of Arc, (d. 1438).
  • Joan of Arc: Letter to the King of England, 1429.
  • The Trial of Joan of Arc, 1431
  • Nicolas, Nicholas Harris: The Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York: The Wardrobe Accounts of Edward IV [Internet Archive/R3]
    Nicolas's introductory memoirs of Yorkist royalty, with commentary on the Ricardian controversies of the time; the privy purse expenses of Elizabeth of York. To come: the Wardrobe Accounts. A lengthy series of documents, consisting of 24 interlinked files.
• Noblewomen
  • Cartulary of Saint Trond: Richelinde: A Gift of Serfs to Abbey of St. Trond, 938
  • Joan, Countess of Flanders: Grant to Weavers of Exemption from the Taille, 1224
  • Margaretta, Countess of Flanders & Hainault: A Purchase of Tithes and Remission of a Tax, 1246
• "Middle" Class Women
  • Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1340-1400): Canterbury Tales: Prologue to Wife of Bath's Tale [Modern Text] , (c.1380). A Parallel Text Version, [using HTML Tables] is also available.
• Towns Women
  • texts?
• Peasant Women
  • texts?
• Jewish Women
  • Barcelona Jewish Court Documents: A Daughter's Inheritance, 1293, trans. Elka Klein
  • Barcelona Jewish Court Documents: A Jewish Widow and her Daughter, 1261-1262, trans. Elka Klein
  • Reciting the Grace after Meals: The Status of Jewish Women, from Berakhot, chap. 7, trans. Elka Klein
  • Synod of Castilian Jews, 1432
    Ordinances from  assembly of the Jews of the kingdom of Castile at Valladolid in 1432 -- includes a discussion of forced marriages..
• Women at Home
  • Robert Palmer: Women and the Law. [Was At Houston, now Internet Archive]
    Glanvill on Law as it applies to women in England, 1188.
  • Le Menagier [or Goodman] of Paris: on ideal marriage.
  • Bernardino of Siena: Sermons on Wives and Widows, 1427.
  • Master Huen's Boke of Gode Cookery
    - A compilation of Medieval recipes from period sources, with modern adaptations for the 20th c. kitchen. With diverse facts on food & feasting in the Middle Ages, and many things related historically. [At SCA site: at labs.net] [Internet Archive version here]
• Women at Work Outside the Home
  • Trial of Jacqueline Felice: A Woman Doctor, 1322, copyrighted
• Women in Business Activities
  • texts?
• Women and Misogyny
  • 2ND Standard Misquotation Assigned to John Chrysostom
  • Witchcraft Documents, inc. the Papal Bull of 1484, Johannes Nider on witches, and extracts from the Malleus malificaram.
  • Sprenger and Kramer: The Malleus M-icarum [The Hammer of Witches], 1484, full text. [At Sacred Texts] [Internet Archive version here]
  • Witchcraft Legends, Translated and/or edited by D. L. Ashliman. [At Pitt] [Internet Archive version here]

• Charters relating to Judicial Duels, 11th - 12th Century,  trans. Richard Barton
  • Duel between Engelardus and the monks of Saint-Serge of Angers, c.1100
  • Abbots Daibert and Otbrannus prevent a battle between their monks, 27 and 28 April, 1064
  • Trouble between St Martin of Tours and Holy Cross of Talmont leads to a judicial battle, 1098
  • Abbot Robert of Mont-Saint-Michel seeks the right to determine where duels are held.
• Statuta Armorum (The Statutes of Arms), c. 1260
  An attempt to forbid jousting, etc.

• General
  • WEB  For this subject the People With A History: An Online Guide to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans* History
• Legal Control of Sexuality
  • Justinian I: Novel 77, [538 CE] and Novel 141, [544 C-a>. [At PWH]
    Includes texts of earlier Roman legislation on homosexuality.
  • Theodore of Studium (d.826): Reform Rules, contains interesting references to adelphopoiia and dangers of monastic friendships.
  • Regino of Prüm (early 10th century): Ordo for a Bishop's Visitation of his Diocese (Reginonis Prumiensis Libri Duo de Synodalibus Causis et Disicplinis Ecclesiasticis). [At After Empire] [Internet Archive version here]
    There's a high level of interest in sins related to sex, marriage, divorce and homosexuality.
• Theological Norms
  • Peter Damian: 'The Different Types of Those Who Sin Against Nature', from Liber Gomorrhianus, .c.1048-54.
  • Alain of Lille (d. 1203): The Plaint of Nature, extracts. The full text is also available.
  • Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274): On Sex: Summa Theologiae II-II, 153-154.
  • Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274): On Unnatural Sex: Summa Theologiae II-II, 154, 10-11.
  • A Legend of the Austrian Tyrol: St. Kümmernis
    A female saint who grows a beard.
  • See Medieval Sourcebook: Saints' Lives for more lives of female transgender/crossdressing saints.
• Homoerotic/Transgendered Subcultures
  • The Nizámu'l Mulk (?-1092 CE) : On the Courtiers and Familars of Kings
  • Homoerotic Medieval Texts.
  • The Passion of Sergius and Bacchus, full text of early passion. [At CMU] [Internet Archive version here]
  • Two Versions of the Rite of Adelphopoiia.
  • The Questioning of Eleanor Rykener (also known as John), a Cross-Dressing Prostitute, 1395.
    This is the one a a minute number of texts from legal processes on same-sex and/or transgender issues in late medieval England. The document contains a facsimile of the Roll membrane, a Latin transcription, and a translation.

• General
  • Selections from the Bible on Marriage
  • New Concern with Geneaologies 10th Century [At After Empire] [Internet Archive version here]
  • WEB The Canterbury Roll Project [Internet Archive version here]
    A 15th-century English genealogical text. It was created in the late 1420s/ early 1430s 
• Theology
  • St Augustine: On Marriage and Concupiscence, excerpts.
    A crucial text for understanding why marriage was such a problem for medieval canonists and theologians.
  • St Jerome (c. 320-420): On Marriage and Virginity, From Letter XXII to Eustochium and from the treatise Against Jovinian
  • St Jerome (c. 320-420): On The Song of Songs, From the treatise Against Jovinian
• Law and Marriage
  • Corpus Iuris Civilis: The Digest and Codex on Marriage. See also Catholic Encyclopedia: History of Marriage
  • Codex Justinianus: Protection of Freewomen Married to Servile Husbands, c. 530 [Vll.24.i.]
  • Codex Justinianus: Children of the Unfree, c. 530 [Xl.48.xxi.]
  • Codex Justinianus: Children of Mixed Marriages, c. 530 [Xl.48.xxiv.]
  • The Contract of Marriage, in the Ecloga of Leo III, (726).
  • A Husband's Endowment Of His Future Wife On Their Betrothal - Southern Burgundy, 994.
  • Council Legislation on Marriage.
  • Tables of Kindred and Degrees - both Roman and German methods of calculation.
  • Peasant Servitude and Obligations: Rulings by Louis VI and Louis VII of France (12th Century), , trans. Richard Barton.
  • Disputing and Dispute Resolution in Monastic Charters from the Vendômois, c. 1040-1118, trans. Richard Barton.
    14 documents from the Cartulaire de la Trinité de Vendôme with reference to monastic life, rural life, dispute resolution, duels.
  • The Law of Brusthem, 1175, on a mixed marriage between a slave and a freewoman.
  • Gratian:  On Marriage.
  • Innocent III (r.1198-1216): Letters on Marriage, and Women, 1203-1204
  • Manorial Marriage and Sexual Offense Cases.
  • Pope Urban IV (1261–1264) or Pope Clement IV (1265–1268): De Sinu patris and Audi filia et 1260s [Wikisource]
    Letters urging an unnamed nobleman to return to his wife, possibly in reference to the Cypriot queen Plaisance of Antioch and her lover John of Jaffa.
  • Church Courts Pursue Adulterers, 1289
  • Robert of Flamborough: Summa Confessorum: on Luxuria..
• Married Lives
  • The Crow of the Bestiaries.
  • Sale of Daughter as a Concubine.
  • Wife Sues to Get Husband Back .
  • Constance of Brittany and Gerald of Wales: On Louis VII of France.
  • Le Menagier [or Goodman] of Paris: on ideal marriage.
  • Bernardino of Siena: Sermons on Wives and Widows , (1427).

The Internet Medieval Sourcebook is part of the Internet History Sourcebooks Project. The Internet History Sourcebooks Project is located at the History Department of  Fordham University, New York. The Internet Medieval Sourcebook, and other medieval components of the project, are located at the Fordham University Center for Medieval Studies.The IHSP recognizes the contribution of Fordham University, the Fordham University History Department, and the Fordham Center for Medieval Studies in providing web space and server support for the project. The IHSP is a project independent of Fordham University.   Although the IHSP seeks to follow all applicable copyright law, Fordham University is not the institutional owner, and is not liable as the result of any legal action.

© Site Concept and Design: Paul Halsall created 26 Jan 1996: latest revision 15 March 2023