By Martin Le France (1410-1461) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons In her essay in Listening to Heloise, edited by Bonnie Wheeler, Jane Chance argues that the people, objects and concepts from the Middle Ages which we study and feel we have come to know are, in fact, completely unknowable to us. We understand a […]
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Aerial view of Back Bay, Boston including the Prudential Center and John Hancock Tower (Sfoskett at English Wikipedia). The second Women’s Literature Culture and the Medieval Canon International Network event with take place at the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies at Boston University from 26 – 29 July 2016. This ground breaking project aims to […]
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Image of Le Dyalogue’s frontispiece “My God, my creator, my redeemer, illuminate my interior eyes.” So begins the main text of Le Dyalogue de la duchesse de Bourgogne a Jesus Christ (London, The British Library, Add. MS 7970), commissioned by Margaret of York, the Duchess of Burgundy, around 1468. Margaret was a prominent manuscript patron, […]
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Artist unknown © public domain March 25 is Lady Day, a traditional name in England for the Feast of the Annunciation. This feast commemorates Gabriel’s proclamation to Mary that she will be the mother of God (Luke 1: 26-38). After this event, when Mary visits her cousin, Elizabeth, Mary declaims a poem in praise of […]
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© The British Library Board: London, British Library, Harley MS 4431, fol. 3r – Christine presenting her book to Queen Isabeau of Bavaria Is Christine de Pizan a member of the literary “canon”? Although she was recently cited as an example of a woman author who has managed to enter it, she certainly hasn’t always had a place […]
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The Middle-English alliterative dream poem, Pearl, that appears uniquely in British Library MS Cotton Nero A.X, is illustrated with four miniatures. In the first, the narrator falls asleep. The second shows him in his dream, walking through a garden. In the third, still dreaming, he encounters a figure, the Pearl-Maiden, who is on the […]
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