Researching Women and Gender in the Middle Ages (HC)

Primary sources written during the Middle Ages provide vantage points from which to understand concepts and world views from a different era.

One good place to begin finding primary sources is the Feminae database.

Feminae indexes translations, both complete texts and excerpts from anthologies.

Go to the Advanced Search Page, click on More Searches for Texts and enter  Translation in the Article Type box.

In the Keyword box enter your topic or you can specify a name in the Author box.  You can also specify century and geographic area (British Isles, France, Germany, Iberia etc.) in those search boxes.

Feminae also regularly features a new title as the Translation of the Month.  See also a list of previously featured translations.

This medieval literary genre addressed the ways that people should behave.  This could take the form of moral injunctions, educational texts, handbooks complete with recipes or a hybrid of all of these materials.  Texts were frequently addressed specifically to either girls or boys.  Translations from this genre include:

In recent years publishers have begun to bring out series of translations of texts written by women or for women during the Middle Ages.  See in particular:

Library of Medieval Women
Publisher's List of All Titles Currently in the Series

Matrologia
Matrologia texts available online in Monastic Matrix

​Other Voice in Early Modern Europe
List of titles in Tripod        Pick out those written before 1500.

TEAMS  Middle English text Series

Many of the editions and translations published by the Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages (TEAMS) are available online. Notable titles concerning women and gender include:
The Floure and the Leafe, The Assemblie of Ladies, and The Isle of Ladies, ed. Derek Pearsall (1990)
The Trials and Joys of Marriage, ed. Eve Salisbury (2002)