“Ich schreyberin”: Rethinking Female Authorship with Anna Eybin’s Table of Contents

Anna Eybin, provost of the Augustinian convent Pillenreuth near Nuremberg from 1461 to 1476, was a prolific compiler and scribe of books for her religious community. In her book of saints’ lives, Eybin also includes a detailed, though incomplete, table of contents. A comparison of the descriptions in the contents with the texts in the book provides specific examples of textual composition. In addition, an analysis of certain emphases in the contents underscores the way that writing is foregrounded as a theme in Eybin’s legendary. In particular, the life of Queen Anastasia foregrounds a scene of writing that mirrors Eybin’s scribal activity as well as a scene of conversion through reading that mirrors the roles of Eybin’s readers. The article concludes that a broader conception of authorship that includes activity such as Eybin’s, as well as that of her readers, helps us to realize a more diverse literary history.