Sherri Franks Johnson

This is a solid overview of women's religious communities and their broader social contexts in late medieval Bologna—in this period, one of the most important cities in what is now Italy. Sherri Franks Johnson makes extensive use of Bologna's archival records make the case that, rather than being marginalized, these women were active participants in their wider world. It's of a piece with much scholarship on women's monasticism and religious identity of the last 20-30 years—e.g. Sharon Strocchia or Alison More—and bolsters them, even if Franks Johnson's arguments are not in themselves particularly groundbreaking. A useful reference for those working on women's/Italian monasticism in the Middle Ages.… (mehr)