{"product_id":"the-white-nuns-cistercian-abbeys-for-women-in-medieval-france-hardback-9780812250107","title":"The White Nuns; Cistercian Abbeys for Women in Medieval France (Hardback) 9780812250107","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eThe White Nuns\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eCistercian Abbeys for Women in Medieval France\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eConstance Hoffman Berman (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9780812250107\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eHardback, published 22 May 2018\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e368 pages, 21 illus.\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.666 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\"With her excellent \u003ci\u003eThe White Nuns, \u003c\/i\u003eConstance Hoffman Berman completes a trilogy of revisionist books on medieval Cistercians… Berman notes that all too often, modern historians have taken at face value frequently misogynist medieval accounts of nuns, Cistercian and otherwise. That points to the immense value of this study: it examines thousands of records that show what these women actually did, as opposed to what men said they did (or didn't do). If you are interested in medieval monasticism, the Cistercian Order, or medieval women in general, please read \u003ci\u003eThe White Nuns\u003c\/i\u003e. This long-awaited book does not disappoint.\" (Catholic Historical Review) \"\u003ci\u003eThe White Nuns,\u003c\/i\u003e . . . represents the culmination of over thirty years of painstaking archival and literary research during which Berman has challenged and turned upside down received scholarship on many aspects of the Cistercian Order, not least its attitude towards, and treatment of, Cistercian nuns.\" (\u003ci\u003eFrench History\u003c\/i\u003e) \"\u003ci\u003eThe White Nuns\u003c\/i\u003e provides a treasure trove of highly significant research within the fields of medieval religious and economic history. Constance Hoffman Berman presents a detailed, thoughtful, and stimulating discussion of reformed Cistercian nuns across a significant timescale.\" (Brenda Bolton, University of London)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eModern studies of the religious reform movement of the central Middle Ages have often relied on contemporary accounts penned by Cistercian monks, who routinely exaggerated the importance of their own institutions while paying scant attention to the remarkable expansion of abbeys of Cistercian women. Yet by the end of the thirteenth century, Constance Hoffman Berman contends, there were more houses of Cistercian nuns across Europe than of monks. In \u003ci\u003eThe White Nuns\u003c\/i\u003e, she charts the stages in the nuns' gradual acceptance by the abbots of the Cistercian Order's General Chapter and describes the expansion of the nuns' communities and their adaptation to a variety of economic circumstances in France and throughout Europe. While some sought contemplative lives of prayer, the ambition of many of these religious women was to serve the poor, the sick, and the elderly.\u003cbr\u003e Focusing in particular on Cistercian nuns' abbeys founded between 1190 and 1250 in the northern French archdiocese of Sens, Berman reveals the frequency with which communities of Cistercian nuns were founded by rich and powerful women, including Queen Blanche of Castile, heiresses Countess Matilda of Courtenay and Countess Isabelle of Chartres, and esteemed ladies such as Agnes of Cressonessart. She shows how these founders and early patrons assisted early abbesses, nuns, and lay sisters by using written documents to secure rights and create endowments, and it is on the records of their considerable economic achievements that she centers her analysis.\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eThe White Nuns\u003c\/i\u003e considers Cistercian women and the women who were their patrons in a clear-eyed reading of narrative texts in their contexts. It challenges conventional scholarship that accepts the words of medieval monastic writers as literal truth, as if they were written without rhetorical skill, bias, or self-interest. In its identification of long-accepted misogynies, its search for their origins, and its struggle to reject such misreadings, \u003ci\u003eThe White Nuns\u003c\/i\u003e provides a robust model for historians writing against received traditions.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003ePreface\u003cbr\u003e PART I. WERE THERE CISTERCIAN NUNS IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE?\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 1. Reform Monasticism and Cistercian Nuns in Western Europe\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 2. Visitation of Nuns and Their Regularization\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 3. Cistercian Nuns and the Order's Economic Practices\u003cbr\u003e PART II. CISTERCIAN NUNS IN THE ECCLESIASTICAL PROVINCE OF SENS\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 4. Women Regents, Cistercian Nuns, and Feudal Crisis: Clairets, Villiers, Voisins, and Port-Royal\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 5. Cistercian Nuns and the Great Heiresses of Chartres, Blois, and Auxerre\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 6. Blanche of Castile (1188-1252) and Cistercian Abbeys for Nuns\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 7. Saint-Antoine-des-Champs Outside Paris\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 8. Nuns and Viticulture in Champagne\u003cbr\u003e PART III. COMPARISONS AND CONCLUSIONS\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 9. Cistercian Nuns and Their Predecessors\u003cbr\u003e Appendices\u003cbr\u003e 1. \u003ci\u003eAd Medium\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eAmortissement\u003c\/i\u003e, Augmented Rents, Measures, Money, Names\u003cbr\u003e 2. The Evidence: Cistercian Nuns' Charters and Charter Books\u003cbr\u003e 3. Specific Charters and Other Materials for This Study\u003cbr\u003e 4. Size Limits of Abbeys for Cistercian and Other Nuns\u003cbr\u003e 5. Numbers of Cistercian Nuns' Houses According to Selected Historians\u003cbr\u003e Notes\u003cbr\u003e Bibliography\u003cbr\u003e Index\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"University of Pennsylvania Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52745040134424,"sku":"9780812250107","price":58.39,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/the-white-nuns-cistercian-abbeys-for-women-in-medieval-france-hardback-9780812250107","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}