Author Topic: Female scribes through history  (Read 4366 times)

Offline Estefa

  • Super Hero Member
  • ******
  • Posts: 1523
  • Karma: 124
    • View Profile
    • Federflug
Re: Female scribes through history
« Reply #15 on: July 26, 2019, 12:14:50 PM »
Thanks a lot for your additions, @Mary_M , @RD5 and @K-2 ! I was away from the forum a bit, that's why I didn't thank you earlier :).
Stefanie :: Website :: Blog :: Instagram

Offline Estefa

  • Super Hero Member
  • ******
  • Posts: 1523
  • Karma: 124
    • View Profile
    • Federflug
Re: Female scribes through history
« Reply #16 on: January 18, 2022, 10:48:26 AM »
There is currently an exhibition in Köln (Cologne?) about female scribes in medieval times … I’ve ordered the exhibition catalogue and will let you know if it’s worth buying!

https://museum-schnuetgen.de/By-Womens-Hands-Medieval-Manuscripts-from-Cologne-Collections
Stefanie :: Website :: Blog :: Instagram

Offline AnasaziWrites

  • Super Hero Member
  • ******
  • Posts: 2401
  • Karma: 168
  • Ad astra, per aspera
    • View Profile
Re: Female scribes through history
« Reply #17 on: January 18, 2022, 11:35:18 AM »
There is currently an exhibition in Köln (Cologne?) about female scribes in medieval times … I’ve ordered the exhibition catalogue and will let you know if it’s worth buying!

https://museum-schnuetgen.de/By-Womens-Hands-Medieval-Manuscripts-from-Cologne-Collections
@K-2
Perhaps a field trip to see the exhibit?

Offline K-2

  • Senior Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 357
  • Karma: 52
    • View Profile
Re: Female scribes through history
« Reply #18 on: January 18, 2022, 04:10:55 PM »
@Estefa and @AnasaziWrites - I can't believe I'm going to miss this exhibit - it closes at the end of the month.  I was hoping to be in Mainz and Aachen this coming summer (depending on Covid; hah - I was supposed to have been doing research in Mainz & Aachen two summers ago!), and there's nothing but Köln in between them.  I can't wait to hear your review of the catalogue!
--yours, K

Offline Estefa

  • Super Hero Member
  • ******
  • Posts: 1523
  • Karma: 124
    • View Profile
    • Federflug
Re: Female scribes through history
« Reply #19 on: January 19, 2022, 02:12:25 AM »
I’m going to miss it too. @K-2 – travelling just for something like that just doesn‘t work at the moment :(.
Stefanie :: Website :: Blog :: Instagram

Offline RD5

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 134
  • Karma: 5
    • View Profile
Re: Female scribes through history
« Reply #20 on: June 13, 2022, 09:55:19 AM »
I didn't see Jeanne de Montbaston in the list yet.  She was an illustrator/illuminator who worked with her husband, Richard, at their bookmaking atelier in Paris, around 1320 to 1355.  She outlived him, and kept the business going for a number of years, so I think she must have also done scribal work.  Her illustrations & illuminations appear in some of the world's most beautiful books.  (examples at the Getty: http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/artists/28932/jeanne-de-montbaston-french-active-about-1320-1355/)

She's also famous for the notorious 14th-century edition of the Romance of the Rose with illustrations of nuns harvesting penises off a penis tree (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS. Fr. 25526). You can view the entire manuscript online: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b6000369q.r=MS.%20Fr.%2025526?rk=21459;2

--yours, K

Interestingly enough, I read about that book after I stumbled upon an article about Christine de Pizan, a French court poetess born in Venice. She was a harsh critic of the Romance of the Rose, partly on the grounds that it was misogynist (I am not sure if she used this term). The information on her isn’t very clear, because some of it that I read is contradictory and some of it seems to be speculation. She was the widow of a royal secretary (I am noticing a pattern), and was able to write in chancellery script, and may have been a copyist. Some sources speculate that she was also an illuminator, but I doubt that. She mentions a female border artist (manuscript production was very specialized back then), named Anastasia, and praises her as the best. Some sources conclude from that to say that she preferred to work with women. However, it may be that she preferred to work with the best, and gave Anastasia as an example of a talented woman (the book was about women). One of the conflicting things in the online sources is how typical women artisans were, however, they seem to be less rare than women poets.