234:
186:
334:
322:
122:
25:
249:, and female religious houses more generally, provided early modern women with access to a contemplative life of the mindâincluding educational opportunities, conventual libraries, and the resources needed to compose original works of theological, devotional, mystical, and liturgical significanceâthanks to their protected status within the Roman Catholic Church.
212:
The titles are also generally quite rare: nearly one-third of the items are completely unrepresented in North
American libraries; one-quarter survive in just a handful of recorded copies; and one-fifth are entirely unrecorded elsewhere and presumably unique. Approximately one-quarter of the books in
465:
The
Sheridan Libraries started acquiring items for the collection from 2017 onward. An international conference sponsored by the Virginia Fox Stern Center was convened in the fall of 2019, which formed the basis of a forthcoming, heavily illustrated book on the collection to be jointly published in
433:), including elaborately framed devotional portraits and various para-liturgical devices. The Women of the Book Collection also holds dozens of printed single-sheet ephemera, almost all of which are unrecorded in any other copies. These include original engraved
284:
of famously devout
Catholic women religious. Perhaps the single best-represented woman in the collection was also the premier model of early modern piety, sanctity, and intellectual achievement, and one of the first beneficiaries of major reforms in the
369:; texts relating to everyday life and the domestic economy of convents; libros de professiones (matriculation record books for individual convents); illustrated plate books representing the lives and deeds of saintly nuns; personal devotions to the
360:
accounts of the exemplary lives of these religious women. However, the subjects range dramatically and encompass many varieties of devotional, ecclesiastical, liturgical, mystical, and missionary subjects, including
404:
Due to the
Catholic tradition of treating books and material objects as holy and invested with spiritual power in early modern Europe, there is also a wide range of custom-made items in the collection, including
233:
197:
The vast majority of the collection, perhaps as much as 90 percent of some 725 individual items in total, date from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and are almost entirely printed in
757:
733:: JHU Advanced Academic Programs. Dr. Earle Havens, Nancy H. Hall Curator of Rare Books & Manuscripts at Johns Hopkins University, discusses the collection (on YouTube).
373:
and venerations of female saints; works related to female labor in hospitals and in medicine more generally; lawsuits and legal testimony of miracles (particularly female
752:
523:
Weber, Alison (2016). Poska, Allyson M.; Couchman, Jane; McIver, Katherine A. (eds.). "Literature by Women
Religious in Early Modern Catholic Europe and the New World".
474:(September 2022 â January 2023). A research fellowship program focusing on the collection has also been created, and jointly sponsored by the Stern Center and the
807:
125:
Engraving of Teresa of Ăvila by Elias
Christoph Heiss, frontispiece of Quirinus a Sanctissima Trinitate, Teutsch vorgestellte Spanische Heldin, Munich, 1714 (from the
603:
205:; approximately half of its materials are Italian and French, while the rest include significant Spanish holdings (as well as a number of items produced in the
42:
185:
333:
149:
dedicated entirely to the lives and cultural experiences of early modern women, circa 1450â1800. It is held at the
Special Collections Department of
739:. Laura McNulty, Kress Conservation Fellow at the Johns Hopkins Sheridan Libraries, on her work with the Women of the Book Collection (on YouTube).
293:(died 1582, beatified 1614, canonized 1622). Other "celebrity" nuns well represented in the collection that follow the Teresian model include
321:
261:
89:
61:
325:
Emblems and texts in honor of the demi-jubilee of
Ursuline sister Jeanne-Isabelle du Bois de Sainte Rosalie, on June 16, 1698 (from the
475:
621:
762:
108:
68:
252:
Though driven in large part by the proliferation of reformed medieval and newly founded early modern female monastic ordersâthe
787:
337:
Reliquary folded book amulet or 'breverl' produced by nuns in
Austria or southern Germany to be sold to visitors and pilgrims,
75:
568:
Walsham, Alexandra (2004). "Jewels for
Gentlewomen: Religious Books as Artefacts in Late Medieval and Early Modern England".
46:
121:
802:
57:
782:
718:
286:
792:
772:
467:
294:
767:
298:
478:. Approximately 90 percent of the Women of the Book Collection has been digitized supported by a grant from the
237:
Medal commemorating the canonization of Pedro de AlcĂĄntara and Maria Maddalena de' Pazzi, Rome, 1669 (from the
150:
777:
306:
35:
471:
310:
154:
82:
370:
202:
701:
504:"Women of the Book: Unlocking the Secret Lives of Female Mystics, Miracle Workers, and Nuns,1450-1800"
365:(many with unique musical notations); the rules and constitutions of particular orders and lay female
454:
257:
731:
Women of the Book: Unlocking the Secret Lives of Female Mystics, Miracle Workers, and Nuns,1450-1800
657:
470:
and the Stern Center. A major exhibition of the collection is ongoing in Johns Hopkins's historic
201:
languages. The collection reflects the linguistic and geographic diversity of early modern female
797:
585:
290:
378:
209:), several Flemish works, and smaller numbers of largely German, Swiss, and Portuguese books.
577:
483:
406:
442:
158:
555:"Gold, Perlen und Edel-Gestein": Reliquienkult und Klosterarbeiten im deutschen SĂŒdwesten
426:
265:
206:
170:
746:
589:
540:
From Madrid to Purgatory : The Art and Craft of Dying in Sixteenth-Century Spain
386:
366:
273:
269:
479:
394:
302:
277:
639:
418:
362:
357:
24:
453:, confraternity charters, and bespoke illustrated and illuminated documents of
736:
730:
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581:
503:
438:
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281:
222:
218:
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272:
is rooted in a rapid proliferation of interest in the sanctification (i.e.,
253:
166:
658:"Women of the Book. The Spiritual Lives of Early Modern Women, 1450â1800"
622:"Women of the Book: The Spiritual Lives of Early Modern Women, 1450-1800"
525:
The Ashgate Research Companion to Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe
382:
146:
138:
640:""Women of the Book" Exhibit Reveals the Lives of Women from 1450-1800"
508:
446:
434:
430:
246:
16:
Special collection of Johns Hopkins University's The Sheridan Libraries
410:
542:(2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 508.
289:
that governed the processes and increased speed of sanctification:
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120:
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accounts; and works printed by orders of reformed sex workers.
162:
18:
157:. What distinguishes the collection is its singular focus on
389:; foundation accounts of female monastic houses in the
690:"Johns Hopkins University Library - Women of the Book"
719:
Rare Books Illuminate the Lives of Early Modern Nuns"
727:. Short introduction of the collection (on YouTube).
49:. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
758:Special collections libraries in the United States
352:The most common genres within this literature are
8:
189:Plate from a convent costume book (from the
721:, in: Johns Hopkins Magazine, Winter 2019.
676:"RSAâVirginia Fox Stern Center Fellowship"
109:Learn how and when to remove this message
753:Rare book libraries in the United States
527:. London and New York: Routledge: 33â52.
137:is the largest gathering of rare books,
808:Christianity in the early modern period
495:
213:the collection bear unique manuscript
482:and is freely accessible through the
7:
47:adding citations to reliable sources
468:Pennsylvania State University Press
307:Jeanne-Françoise Frémiot de Chantal
14:
700:which also contains a searchable
268:, and so onâa great deal of this
662:Johns Hopkins Sheridan Libraries
23:
425:, and various klosterarbeiten (
161:women religious, in particular
34:needs additional citations for
476:Renaissance Society of America
58:"Women of the Book Collection"
1:
461:Valorization and digitization
338:
221:and adaptive or interpretive
346:Women of the Book Collection
327:Women of the Book Collection
239:Women of the Book Collection
191:Women of the Book Collection
135:Women of the Book Collection
127:Women of the Book Collection
538:Eire, Carlos M. N. (2002).
824:
393:; education and teaching;
582:10.1017/S0424208400015771
570:Studies in Church History
429:made by nuns for sale to
311:Marguerite Marie Alacoque
295:Maria Maddalena de' Pazzi
763:Johns Hopkins University
553:Bock, Sebastian (1995).
151:Johns Hopkins University
644:Giving to Johns Hopkins
788:Gender and Catholicism
472:George Peabody Library
349:
330:
242:
194:
155:The Sheridan Libraries
130:
336:
324:
313:, among many others.
291:Saint Teresa of Avila
287:Congregation of Rites
236:
188:
124:
803:Religious literature
737:Convent-ional Wisdom
397:; convent plays and
258:Discalced Carmelites
43:improve this article
783:History of religion
317:Subjects and genres
773:Women and religion
704:of the collection.
350:
331:
243:
229:Production context
195:
131:
768:Renaissance women
725:Women of the Book
605:Women of the Book
557:. Munich: Hirmer.
439:indulgence sheets
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717:S. Cruikshank, "
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512:. 10 March 2022.
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484:Internet Archive
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217:reflecting past
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358:hagiographical
348:, nr. 8042471)
329:, nr. 7532559)
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280:) and saintly
266:Conceptionists
241:, nr. 7595989)
230:
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207:Spanish Empire
193:, nr. 9377030)
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159:Roman Catholic
129:, nr. 6743775)
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32:This article
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693:. Retrieved
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480:Arcadia Fund
466:2023 by the
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435:copperplates
427:objets d'art
417:and painted
403:
363:prayer books
354:biographical
351:
345:
326:
303:Rose of Lima
278:canonization
262:Visitandines
251:
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177:holy women.
134:
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41:Please help
36:verification
33:
576:: 123â142.
443:investiture
415:embroidered
387:autos-de-fé
377:), demonic
371:Virgin Mary
342: 1760
245:Cloistered
215:annotations
203:monasticism
143:manuscripts
747:Categories
695:2023-09-28
490:References
455:profession
451:holy cards
421:, contact
407:apotropaic
399:procession
379:possession
375:bilocation
344:(from the
282:veneration
223:marginalia
219:provenance
199:vernacular
69:newspapers
798:Sainthood
702:catalogue
590:191361930
391:New World
254:Ursulines
165:, female
139:pamphlets
99:June 2022
431:pilgrims
419:bindings
383:exorcism
247:convents
147:ephemera
509:YouTube
447:ex voto
445:poems,
411:amulets
167:mystics
83:scholar
588:
423:relics
385:, and
309:, and
173:, and
145:, and
85:
78:
71:
64:
56:
609:(PDF)
586:S2CID
409:book
181:Scope
90:JSTOR
76:books
449:and
356:and
276:and
169:and
163:nuns
133:The
62:news
578:doi
175:lay
153:'s
45:by
749::
660:.
642:.
624:.
584:.
574:38
572:.
506:.
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87:·
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39:.
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