Women's Monasticism and Medieval Society: Nunneries in France and England, 890-1215 by Bruce L. Venarde (review)

530BOOK REVIEWS Medieval Women'sMonasticism andMedieval Society:Nunneries in France andEngland, 890-1215. By Bruce L. Venarde. (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. 1997. Pp. xx, 243. $42.50.) In the eleventh,twelfth, and early thirteenth centuries, the overwhelming majority of charters and literary materials were composed in religious communities of men. Modern scholars of monasticism have been drawn to that wealth of source material and, as a consequence, have often underestimated the number and significance of-women's religious houses. But the large number of monastic foundations for women points to an importance that the paucity of the sources obscures. In recent decades, the study of religious women has made great strides, in spite of the limitations of the sources. This monograph is a solid, focused contribution to the effort to understand the monastic life of women. Sometimes an obvious idea, well executed, can yield important insights. For the period between the fifth century and 1350, Bruce Venarde counted the religious communities for women in fifteen archdioceses, two in England and thirteen in France: he found evidence for more than 850 houses, not all of which existed at the same time. He estimated that in the year 1000 there were seventy nunneries in England and France, a number which grew to more than 400 by 1170, to 525 by 1220, and to 625 by 1300. The effort to count communities of women in a particular region is an original idea and seems to have been carried out with care and good sense. The author created a database in which, for each house, he put the name, location, monastic order or rule, date of foundation, and other evidence, such as the social status of founders. From the database he generated interesting maps, graphs, and tables that tell a great deal about the foundation, diffusion, and affiliation of religious communities of women, particularly in the period from about 890 to about 1215. The author realized that numbers without context were a limited source ofhistorical insight. He embedded his numerical findings in a narrative which summarized much contemporary scholarship about women's monasticism and about contemporaneous demographic, political, and economic developments. Careful counting can offer remarkable insights. The "group portrait" offemale religious houses is convincing, with appropriate regional and temporal nuances . At times, the research confirms prevalent generalizations: it comes as no surprise, but is now more precisely documented, that the years between 1080 and 1 170 were the most exuberant period of foundations for women, as they were for men. At other times, the research produces unexpected conclusions. For instance, in spite of the attention given by medieval writers and modern scholars to the "new" orders of Cistercians, Premonstratensians, and mendicants /Old-style"Benedictine monasticism retained a strong attraction for founders and nuns well into the thirteenth century. The author identified a rhythm of monastic foundations for women which is very plausible, linked as it is to changes in demography, agricultural growth, and assertions of political power. BOOK REVIEWS531 There is much that will never be known about women's monastic life, in large part because the women did not write about themselves. This is a relatively brief, original, and informative approach to the development of religious life, not just of women but by implication of men as well. In spite of the ambitious title,this is not a history ofwomen's monasticism,but it does reveal a great deal about the pace of foundation, the geography of foundation (some dioceses had many nunneries and some dioceses had none at all), and the social station of founders. The book is well written in a clear, economical style. Joseph H. Lynch Ohio State University The Exultet in Southern Italy. By Thomas Forrest Kelly. (NewYork: Oxford University Press. 1996. Pp. xvi, 352; 17 plates. $95.00.) The Exultet is a chant of rejoicing and praise that is sung at the beginning of the Easter vigil service after the lighting of the Paschal candle. As a very long text that is sung by a soloist, and performed only once in the liturgical year, it must be written down. Although in many places during the Middle Ages the Exultet was included in missals, pontificals, processionals...