Spätmittelalterliche Frauenfrömmigkeit am Niederrhein

At the end of the 14 century, the reform movement of the late medieval church, known as the devotio moderna, originated in the IJssel valley. Due to the history of their development, their contacts and their book culture, women's convents in Geldern and Sonsbeck were exemplary of the female sector in the 15th century. Whereas the Geldern convent took up the monastic life quite soon, St. Andreas in Sonsbeck gradually developed from its beginnings as a Beguines' house into a tertiaries' convent with a monastic life. In both convents, manuscripts were created which gave the ideal of piety its own expression by collecting and presenting religious literature in the vernacular. Monika Costard examines this evidence of book culture in women's convents, evidence which had received little attention up to now. There is an exceptional number of manuscripts from Geldern, and these are compiled and described in this book for the first time.