Search Terms
When using Search Engines or Databases to find resources...
Use
“early medieval” OR “dark age”
“religious women” OR “monastic women”
“Germany”
Avoid
“nun” (too generic) AND “East Francia” (too specific)
Subject Headings
204 Religious experience, life, practice
207 Missions and religious education
274 History of Christianity in Europe
281 Early church and Eastern churches
943 Germany and central Europe
BR160-275 Christianity–History–By period–Early and medieval
BX895-939 Christian Denominations–Catholic Church–Study and teaching
BX940-1745 Christian Denominations–Catholic Church–History
BX2400-4563 Christian Denominations–Catholic Church–Monasticism. Religious orders
DD127-135 History of Germany–History–By period–Early and medieval to 1519–Medieval Empire, 481 - 1273–481-918. Merovingians. Carolingians
DD136-144 History of Germany–History–By period–Early and medieval to 1519–Medieval Empire, 481 - 1273–Houses of Saxony and Franconia
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A Road Nearly Taken by Matthew Hussey
Hussey’s chapter in Feminist Approaches to Early Medieval English Studies attempts to reveal one of many intellectual networks that existed between Francia, Saxony, and Anglo-Saxon England. This is done through a paleographical study of manuscripts written by women religious and the features that connect them across the continent. The author finds emulation of ornamentation styles and annotations in vernacular language that suggest shared use. Of particular note is that these artful and varied features developed in the more egalitarian Germanic cultural centers, farther from the authoritative Roman ecclesiastical reach. The Carolingian reforms of the early 9th century would sadly bring much of this creativity and empowerment to an end.
A Fragmentary Archive by Diane Watt
In her article, Watt introduces the correspondence between missionaries from England to the Germanic lands with their commonly understood mood of inevitability. However, in some letters between women, she finds not enthusiasm for the work, but rather a yearning for a lost companion, a tone that she ascribes as queer. Watt goes further to relate this feeling to a common theme found in Anglo-Saxon poetry, with its own set of ambiguities. She compares the text of Old English poetry to the letters to make a compelling argument for the use of the former as a template for the latter. This stands to reason that those teaching in East Francia would use such texts in their instruction, or at least allow such instruction to be influenced by them.
Nuns' Scriptoria in England and Francia in the Eighth Century by Rosamond McKitterick
McKitterick’s article is an assessment of women’s monastic foundations and their connections to other foundations through the texts associated with them. In a time when most travel was done on foot, proximity made for closer connections between foundations, but this did exclude distant connections. Through letters, she shows evidence that the border between East and West Francia was a common resting place for pilgrims traveling from the British Isles. Manuscript hands show a further connection between East, West, and Insular. Given the cultural diffusion occurring in cities like Trier at this boundary, McKitterick suggests that this transfer of information was facilitated here.