Women in the Middle Ages : an encyclopedia / edited by Katharina M. Wilson and Nadia Margolis.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Aasta of Norwar -- Abutsu-ni -- Adela of Blois -- Adelaide (Countess of Aumale) -- St. Aethelthryth -- St. Agnes of Assisi -- Blessed Agnes of Bohemia -- Alaisina Yselda -- Alamanda -- Alba lady -- St. Aldegund -- Almuc de Castelnou -- Amalasuntha -- Ancrene Riwle -- Blessed Angela of Foligno -- Anna of Munzingen -- Anne of Bohemia -- Arthurian women -- Medieval women artists -- Frau Ava -- Azalais dʼAltier -- Azalais de Porcairagues -- Aztec warrior women -- Alijt Bake -- Battista da Montefeltro Malatesta -- Baudonivia -- Beatrice -- Beatrijs -- van Nazareth/van Tienen -- Beatritz de Dia -- Margaret Beaufort -- Beguines -- Dorothea Beier -- Belle Dame sans Merci -- Belle Helene de Constantinople -- Illuminata Bembo -- Juliana Berners -- Bertha of Vilich -- Berthgyth -- Sister Bertken/Berta Jacobs -- Bietris de Roman -- St. Birgitta of Sweden -- Bizzoche -- Blanche of Castile -- Women in Boccaccio (De Claris Mulieribus) -- Women in Boccaccio (Des Cleres et Nobles Femmes) -- Women in Boccaccio (works other than De Claris Mulieribus) -- Osbern Bikenham -- Mission and Circle of St. Boniface -- Tecla Borja -- Brangain -- Bride of Christ/Brautmystik -- Brunhild -- Bugga -- Burginda -- St. Caesaria Andreas Capellanus -- Na Carenza -- Na Castelloza -- Anonymous Catalan women poets -- St. Catherine of Bologna -- St. Catherine of Siena -- Celibacy -- Laura Cereta -- Chanson de Femme (womenʼs song) -- Alice Chaucer -- Women in the work of Geoffrey Chaucer -- Nun of Chelles -- Childhood and child rearing in the Middle Ages -- Women in China --

Christina of Markyate -- Christina Mirabilis -- Chrisine de Pizan -- Clara dʼAnduza -- St. Clare of Assisi -- St. Clare of Montefalco -- Clemence of Barking -- St. Clothilde -- St. Colette of Corbie -- Anna Comnena -- Compiuta Bonzella -- Comtessa de Dia -- Concubines -- Constance of Castile -- Convents -- Caterina Cornaro -- Courtesy books -- Criseyde -- Daina -- Danse Macabre des Femmes -- Desert mothers Dhuoda -- Dido in the Middle Ages -- St. Dorothea of Montau -- Double Monasteries -- Dower -- Dowry -- Courtly womenʼs dress -- Religious womenʼs dress (western, Christian) -- Christine Ebner -- Margareta Ebner -- Egburg -- Egeria -- Elaine -- Eleanor of Aquitaine -- Eleanor of Brittany -- Eleanor of Castile -- Eleonore of Austria -- Elisabeth of Hungary (St. Thuringia) -- Elisabeth of Nassau-Saarbrucken -- St. Elisabeth of Schonau -- Elizabeth of York -- Elsbeth von Oye -- Emroidery -- Emma -- Emma (Aelfgifu -- Enchantresses, fays (fees), and fairies -- Engelbina von Augsburg -- Enid -- Women as epistolary authors -- Ermengard of Narbonne -- Eucheria -- Eudocia -- St. Eustochium -- Women in Fatimid Egypt -- Cassandra Fedele -- Filipa de Lencastre -- Footbinding -- Francesca da Rimini -- Frauenfrage -- Frauenlied -- Frauenturnier -- Galla Placidia -- Garsenda of Forcalquier -- Gaudairenca -- Geertruide van Oosten -- St. Gertrude the Great of Helfta -- St. Gertrude of Nivelles -- Gherardesca of Pisa -- Lady Godiva -- Cecilia Gonzaga -- Gormonda of Montpellier -- Grazida (Grazida Lizier) -- Griselda -- Gualdrada de Ravignani --

Guglielmittes -- Women in guilds -- Guilielma des Rosers -- Guinevere -- Domna H. Hadewijch -- Hagiography (female saints) -- Ursula Haider -- Hazzecha of Krauftal -- Heloise -- Herrad of Hohenburg (Landsberg) -- St. Hild (Hilda) -- St. Hildegard of Bingen -- Hocktide -- Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim -- Hugeburc of Heidenheim -- Issues and theory of Italian women humanists -- Humility topos -- Igerne -- Ingeborg of Denmark (Isambour of France) -- Ingibiorg -- Isabeau of Bavaria -- Isabel de Villena -- Iseut de Capio -- Isolde -- Ivetta of Huy -- Izumi Shikibu -- Jacquetta of Luxembourg -- Jeanne dʼEvreux -- Jewish women in the Middle Ages -- Joan, Fair Maid of Kent -- Pope Joan -- St. Joan of Arc -- Joreior Hermundardotir i MiojumdalJorunn skaldmaer -- Judgment of Paris -- Julian of Norwich -- Juliana of Mont-Cornillon Jus Primae Noctis -- Blessed Jutta of Disibodenberg -- Katharina von Gebweiler (Geberschweier) -- Katherine of Sutton -- Margery Kempe -- Kharja -- Lady of the Lake -- Adelhaid Langmann Laudine -- Laura -- Women in canon law -- Women in law (Anglo-Saxon England) -- Laxdoela saga -- Jean Le Fevre de Ressons -- Martin Le Franc -- Leoba -- Leonor Lopez de Cordoba -- Lesbians in the Middle Ages -- Li Qingzhao -- Lombarda -- Louise of Savoy -- Lunete -- St. Macrina the Elder -- St. Macrina the Younger -- Les Malmojades -- Marcia in the Middle Ages -- Margaret of Anjou -- Margaret of Scotland (Dauphine of France) -- St. Margaret of Scotland -- Margaret of York --

Margareta von Schwangau -- Marguerite dʼOingt -- Maria de Ajofrin -- Maria of Venice (Maria Sturion) -- Maria de Ventadorn -- Marie de Brabant -- Marie de Champagne -- Marie de Compiegne -- Marie de France -- Marriage -- Blessed Virgin Mary (in the Middle Ages) -- Matilda of Scotland -- Matilda of Tuscany (Canossa) -- Mechthild of Hackeborn -- Mechthild of Magdeburg -- Medea in the Middle Ages -- Medicine and medieval women -- St. Melania the Elder -- St. Melania the Younger -- Melusine -- St. Angela Merici -- Minne -- Mirabai -- Miroir de Mariage (Mirror of Marriage) -- Morgan le Fay -- Mulieres sanctae -- Murasaki Shikibu -- Women in Muscovy -- Music in medieval nunneries -- Music, women composers and musicians -- Muwashshah -- Natura -- Nine Worthy Women -- Angela Nogarola -- Ginevra Nogarola -- Isotta Nogarola -- Norse women -- Novela Sentimental (Sentimental Romance) -- Novella dʼAndrea -- Merovingian nunneries -- Margaret Paston -- Women in penitentials -- Periculoso -- St. Perpetua -- Petronilla of Chemille -- Florencia Pinar -- Pinzochere -- Women in English place names -- Marguerite Porete -- Power of women -- Faltonia Betitia Proba -- Prostitution -- Na Prous Boneta -- Rabʼa al-ʼAdawiyya -- St. Radegund -- Rape -- Relics and medieval women -- Response du Bestiare -- La Reyna de Mallorques -- Women and rhetoric -- Debate of the Roman de la Rose -- Fair Rosamond -- Rules for canonesses, nuns and recluses -- Sachsenspiegel and Schwabenspiegel -- Salic law --

Alessandra Scala -- Scribes and scriptoria -- Maddalena Scrovegni -- Sei Shonagon -- Ipolita Sforza -- Elizabeth (Jane) Shore -- Sister-books (Schwesternbucher) -- Skaldkonur (Old Norse-Icelandic women poets) -- Female slaves -- Agnes Sorel -- Spinners and drapers -- Elsbeth Stagel -- Steinunn Refsdottir -- Syrian-Christian women -- Women as teachers -- Teresa de Cartagena -- St. Thecla -- Theodora -- Theodosia -- Theosebeia -- Theuthild -- Tibors -- Tournoiement des Dames -- Transvestism -- Trobairitz -- Trota and ʺTrotulaʺ -- Women trouveres -- St. Umilta of Faenza -- Sisters of Unterlinden -- Valkyries -- Costanza Varano -- Livre de la Vertu du Sacrement de Mariage -- Virginity -- Valentina Visconti -- Walladah -- Widows -- Witches -- Elizabeth Woodville -- Empress Wu -- Xue Tao -- Yang Guifei -- Yolanda of Aragon -- Yolande of Flanders -- Domna Ysabella -- Zoe Karbounopsina.

The experiences of women in the Middle Ages have been receiving growing amounts of attention and we are only now beginning to appreciate the full extent of their contributions. Medieval women shaped political and domestic life, founded and nurtured religious orders and created numerous enduring literary works. Comprehensive in scope, meticulous in scholarship and accessible in style to general readers and specialists alike, this encyclopedia offers full coverage of the myriad roles, experiences and contributions of women in the medieval world. The Guide to Related Topics groups the entries into the areas of Abbesses and Prioresses, Artists, Craftswomen and Scribes, Communities, Groups and Circles (Religious and Lay), Cultures (Ethnic, National and Religious, Deviants and Marginals, Doctors, Healers and Caregivers, Fairies, Magicians and Witches, Founders, Missionaries, Ascetics, Reformers and Religious, Heretics, Historians, Chroniclers, Memorialists and Sagas, Laws, Customs, Edicts, Oaths, Privileges, Prohibitions and Rules, Literary Characters, Genres, Myths and Themes, Lovers and Beloved,

Manuals of Conduct, Morals and Penance, Martyrs, Sufferers, Prisoners and Victims, Misogynistic/Feminist Topics, Debates and Theoretical Concepts, Mothers (Royal, Dynastic and Theological), Musicians, Composers and Musical Genres, Mystics and Visionary Authors, Rulers (Popes, Empresses, Queens, Noblewomen), Saintsʼ Cults, Lives: Authors and Heroines, Scholars, Humanists, Thinkers and Teachers, Sportswomen, Tradeswomen and Workers, Virgins, Warriors, Protectors and Protesters, Wives and Widows, Writers (Literary), Poets, Translators and Patrons.