Barking Abbey and Medieval Literary Culture

<p>Barking Abbey (founded c. 666) is hugely significant for those studying the literary production by and patronage of medieval women. It had one of the largest libraries of any English nunnery and a history of women's education from the Anglo-Saxon period to the Dissolution; it was also the home of women writers of Latin and Anglo-Norman works as well as of many Middle English manuscript books. The essays in this volume map its literary history offering a wide-ranging examination of its liturgical historio-hagiographical devotional doctrinal and administrative texts with a particular focus on the important hagiographies produced there during the twelfth century. It thus makes a major contribution to the literary and cultural history of medieval England and a rich resource for the teaching of women's texts. Professor Jennifer N. Brown teaches at Marymount Manhattan College; Professor Donna Alfano Bussell teaches at University of Illinois-Springfield. Contributors: Diane Auslander Alexandra Barratt Emma Bérat Jennifer N. Brown Donna A. Bussell Thelma Fenster Stephanie Hollis Thomas O'Donnell Delbert Russell Jill Stevenson Kay Slocum Lisa Weston Jocelyn Wogan-Browne Anne B. Yardley</p>