Open AccessWomen and Books of Hours: Gender Differences, Gender Research
Author(s) -
Ragnild Martine Bø
Publication year - 1970
Publication title -
acta ad archaeologiam et artium historiam pertinentia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.101
H-Index - 3
eISSN - 2611-3686
pISSN - 0065-0900
DOI - 10.5617/acta.5758
Subject(s) - humility , obedience , scholarship , portrait , relation (database) , perspective (graphical) , scope (computer science) , gender studies , sociology , psychology , history , political science , art , social psychology , law , visual arts , art history , programming language , database , computer science
The application of gender studies to medieval manuscripts and to female literacu has enriched our understanding of the relation between women and books in the Middle Ages. My concern here is more specifically the relation between women and books of hours. The aim of the article is to offer an overview of what has been written about women and books of hours over the last few decades, to indicate some of the gendered differences that can be noticed in books of hours, and to give some examples from contemporary scholarship on how a gender perspective can open up scope for new readings of books of hours with a known female ownership. The article concludes that posing gender-oriented questions about books of hours with female owner portraits opens up new perspectives and that such books were often, but not always, produced with a pictorial content that advocates the virtues of purity, humility, and obedience.