Some Significant Episodes in the Study of Medieval Mystical Women: An Introduction

This volume presents new contributions concerning medieval mystical women and their writings in the Christian West. This field has seen an enormous increase of interest over the past few decades. A good example of this growing interest is the collection Medieval Holy Women in the Christian Tradition (c.1100-c.1500), 1 a book described as “the first comprehensive reference book on this vast subject” (p. 2). Nevertheless, we ought not to lose sight of the fact that this field has a long research tradition, and that new studies build and dialogue with the extensive and rich discoveries of the past. How do we seek to situate the present volume in the broader context of earlier research? Antecedents for the focus of this volume must be sought in two distinct areas, namely that of women’s and gender studies - and in particular research into the so-called “beguines” and medieval “women’s movements” - and the study of mysticism. Indeed, our subject concerns the intersection of the two. It would evidently be impossible in the scope of this introduction to provide a comprehensive overview of works by and about mystical women themselves, let alone of the history of research, 2 but we indicate here a number of significant moments in this rich and complex field, by way of example. Since the majority of the chapters that follow were based on papers delivered at a conference honouring the 750th anniversary of the death of Beatrice of Nazareth (1200-1268), we take her as our point of reference.