Medieval Women: Texts and Contexts in Late Medieval Britain: Essays for Felicity Riddy (review)

248 Reviews There are a number of problems encountered by modern readers when studying medieval saints' legends which seem scarcely to bespeak saintliness. Winstead draws attention to such issues as the incorporation of the fantastic, the prurient and often sadistic focus upon the sufferings of female saints, and the regular recurrence of certain events and topoi (which cannot possibly have happened to almost every saint), all of which have troubled modern interpreters. She explains briefly that the purpose of medieval hagiographers was not with historical accuracy (which would rarely have been possible given that the legends were usually developed centuries after the deaths of the purported saints) but with celebrating the 'patterns of holiness' which taught 'spiritualratherthan literal truth'. These issues only receive brief notice here as they form an integral part of the examination of these texts in Virgin Martyrs. This collection of legends is a most welcome addition to the growing number of medieval texts in translation available to students. But it also enables a non-academic audience to appreciate the literary tastes as well as the piety of the middle ages. Winstead looks upon the compilation of this edition as participating in the medieval enterprise of 'making old stories accessible to new readers'. Julie Ann Smith School ofHistory, Philosophy and Politics Massey University Wogan-Browne, Jocelyn and Rosalynn Voaden, Arlyn Diamond, Ann Hutchison, Carol M. Meale, and Lesley Johnson, eds., Medieval Women: Texts and Contexts in Late Medieval Britain: Essays for Felicity Riddy (Medieval Women: Texts and Contexts 3), Turnhout, Brepols, 2000; board; pp. vi, 436; R.R.P. E U R 50.00; ISBN 2503509797. Although the festschrift can sometimes be an unwieldy genre, this collection essays in honour of Felicity Riddy is an exemplary instance of its potential to intervene in afieldas well as to celebrate the influence of the scholar who has inspired the work. The editors of this rich anthology are concerned not only to praise Riddy's scholarship and achievements, but also to create a new kind of 'feminine Festchrift', 'one which celebrates the process as well as the product ofFelicity's life as a scholar' (Rosalynn Voaden, p. 9). Voaden shows how Riddy's own research has taken shape and direction from her regional, cultural and Reviews 249 personal circumstances at various points in her career. At a second-order level, this sensitivity to context is reflected in the methodology and approach fostered by Riddy, and others, at the York Centre for Medieval Studies. This practice is characterised by its insistence that the contexts of medieval texts should be rendered as deeply and richly as possible; and that nothing can be taken for granted as 'background', even though atfirstglance it may seem to be a less important text, a historical 'fact' or even a commonplace about familial relations or gendered behaviour. The majority of essays in this collection combine a characteristic attention to the immediate contexts of their primary materials (for example, literary and documentary manuscripts, household architecture, books of hours) with an assumption that it is always worth 'looking behind' texts (the phrase is Riddy's), both for things that other texts might say, and also for things that texts do not say. This is particularly important when writing about the lives of medieval women, the thematic concern that holds the collection together. There is another sense, too, in which this Medieval Women might be read as a 'feminine Festschrift', not simply in that w o m e n contributors outnumber men, as w e might expect in work on this topic, but that a number of the essays are either written collaboratively, or refer generously to the assistance of the team of six editors, or of other scholars. The 23 essays are articulated into three sections, concerned with 'Reading Matters', 'Matters of Conduct' and 'Household Matters'. Each section ranges from essays concerned closely with texts and their immediate or interdisciplinary contexts to those which interrogate their own methodology more closely. Some ofthe most successful essays are organised around powerful questions about the critical and cultural traditions that have structured and influenced our readings of medieval texts and what they can tell us about medieval women's lives. For example...