CONTENTS

List of Illustrations

Preface Gender, Power, and Patronage: The Impact of Penelope D. Johnson on Medieval Studies (Katherine Allen Smith and Scott Wells)

List of Contributors

Introduction Penelope D. Johnson, the Boswell Thesis, and Negotiating Community and Difference in Medieval Europe (Katherine Allen Smith and Scott Wells)

PART I SHAPING IDENTITY THROUGH SACRED SPACES AND TEXTS

Chapter One Living with a Saint: Monastic Identity, Community, and the Ideal of Asceticism in the Life of an Irish Saint (Diane Peters Auslander)

Chapter Two A Tale of Two Dioceses: Prologues as Letters in the Vitae Authored by Jacques de Vitry and Thomas de Cantimpré (Christina Roukis-Stern)

Chapter Three "Within the Walls of Paradise": Space and Community in the Vita of Umiliana de' Cerchi (1219–1246) (Anne M. Schuchman)

Chapter Four Architectural Mimesis and Historical Memory at the Abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel (Katherine Allen Smith)

Chapter Five Holy Women and the Needle Arts: Piety, Devotion, and Stitching the Sacred, ca. 500–1150 (Jane Tibbetts Schulenburg)

PART II PARTNERSHIPS AND DEVOTIONS ACROSS THE GENDER DIVIDE

Chapter Six The Politics of Gender and Ethnicity in East Francia: The Case of Gandersheim, ca. 850–950 (Scott Wells)

Chapter Seven Noble Women's Power as Refl ected in the Foundations of Cistercian Houses for Nuns in Thirteenth-Century Northern France: Port-Royal, les Clairets, Moncey Lieu and Eau-lez-Chartres (Constance Hoffman Berman)

Chapter Eight "Inseparable Companions": Mary Magdalene, Abelard, and Heloise (Susan Valentine)

Chapter Nine Book, Body, and the Construction of the Self in the Taymouth Hours (Kathryn A. Smith)

PART III BLOOD, EMBODIMENT, AND DEFINING SEPARATION

Chapter Ten Abbot Erluin's Blindness: The Monastic Implications of Violent Loss of Sight (Susan Wade)

Chapter Eleven Blanche of Artois and Burgundy, Château-Gaillard, and the Baron de Joursanvault (Elizabeth A.R. Brown)

Chapter Twelve The Matter of Others: Menstrual Blood and Uncontrolled Semen in Thirteenth-Century Kabbalists' Polemic against Christians, "Bad" Jews, and Muslims (Alexandra Cuffel)

General Index

Index of Manuscripts