Medieval Work, Worship, and Power: Persuasive and Silenced Voices

Medieval Work, Worship, and Power: Persuasive and Silenced Voices celebrates Sharon Farmer's significant contributions to the fields of medieval European social, religious, gender, environmental, labor, and interfaith history. This volume explores and builds on Farmer’s influence through 20 chapters organized across five intersecting topics that capture, chronologically, topically, and theoretically, the scope and trajectory of Farmer’s work. These are (1) Saints, Power, and Piety; (2) Gendered Work; (3) Gender and Resource Management; (4) Women’s Agency and Networks; and (5) Interfaith Tensions and Encounters. At the same time, the chapters themselves reflect the ways in which these fields of inquiry are intertwined, many drawing inspiration from the multiple themes that Farmer has explored. Beyond paying homage to a dedicated and influential scholar, mentor, and teacher, this volume represents current and future directions in the field of medieval history, and how scholars are engaging with unexpected sources and interpreting more familiar sources in new, interdisciplinary ways. The volume will appeal to medievalists and early modernists interested in how religion, gender, and status shape human connections to each other and their environment. More broadly, it will also be of interest to scholars interested in historical methods.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Persuasive and Silenced Voices Part 1: Saints, Monks, Power, and Piety 1. Drinking the Saints: Relic Water in High Medieval English Miracles 2. From Runaway Wife to Sainted Queen: Scandal and the Model of Saintly Queenship in the Early Middle Ages 3. Monks as Enemies: Monastic Feuds in Greater Anjou 4. Monks and Their Frenemies: Chronicling Gender, Masculinity, and Violence in Twelfth-Century Vézelay Part 2: Women and Work 5. The Medieval English Marketplace through the Experience of Women Upholders 6. Women’s Labor in Later Medieval France: Case Studies from Paris 7. Medieval Sheep, Women’s Labor, Boat Shuttles, Broadcloths, Tapestries, and Beguinages 8. Ritual Exclusion and Sacramental Transformation: Women’s Work at the Edges of the Mass 9. Between Martha and Mary: Framing Beguine Labor in Medieval France Part 3: Hitting the Glass Ceiling: Women’s Overlooked Management of Resources 10. Martine Cabot: Portrait of a Medieval Female Kennel Master 11. Growing Power of Place: Urban Gardens in Late Medieval Saint-Omer, 1302–1310 12. Three Visionary Women Hospital Founders, c. 1300 13. Urban Women’s Work as Entrepreneurs and Administrators: Cloth Sellers, Abbesses, and Leaders of Hospitals in Fourteenth-Century Douai 14. The Many Lives of Pelegrina de Saladino: Mother, Testamentary Executor, Guardian, and Patroness in Late Medieval Zadar Part 4: Women’s Agency and Networks 15. Communities of Women in Carolingian Society 16. A Persuasive Voice? Berengaria of Navarre and Female Agency at the Papal Curia, 1200–1230 17. Granting Access: Rescuing the Stories of Missing Witnesses in the Canonization Inquest for Countess Delphine de Puimichel Part 5: Interfaith Tensions and Encounters 18. From Vine to Tavern: Jews, Christians, and Wine in Medieval France and Italy 19. Finely Made, From Afar: Crusader Bourse and Histories of Reuse — Unwinding Gendered Labors in French Textile Networks 20. Philippe de Mézières’ Visualizations of Gender, Crusade, and Community