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Power over past and future: Abbess Emma and the nunnery of Sant Joan de les Abadesses
Author(s) -
Jarrett Jonathan
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
early medieval europe
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.1
H-Index - 24
eISSN - 1468-0254
pISSN - 0963-9462
DOI - 10.1111/j.0963-9462.2004.00128.x
Subject(s) - undo , independence (probability theory) , history , power (physics) , genealogy , art history , humanities , economic history , art , computer science , programming language , statistics , physics , mathematics , quantum mechanics
Abbess Emma of Sant Joan de les Abadesses, post‐Visigothic Catalonia's first known nunnery, left a sufficient documentary record to permit in‐depth study of her method of rule, which included taking her comital brothers to court for her rights. Closer study of these acts suggests that her rule was part of a family strategy, whose change by a younger generation was to undo many of her efforts to secure Sant Joan's independence. Her rule included not only aggressive territorial aggrandizement but the reshaping of the locality's history in a way which has endured until this day.