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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 Introduction: Barking's lives, the abbey and its Abbesses / Donna Alfano Bussell with Jennifer N. Brown -- I. Barking Abbey and its anglo-saxon content -- Barking's monastic school, late seventh to twelfth century: history, saint-making and literary culture / Stephanie Hollis -- The saint-maker and the saint: Hildelith creates Ethelburg / Lisa M.C. Weston -- Goscelin of Saint-Bertin and the translation ceremony for Saints Ethelburg, Hildelith and Wulfhild / Kay Slocum -- 'The ladies have made me quite fat': authors and patrons at Barking Abbey / Thomas O'Donnell -- II. Barking Abbey and its anglo-norman context -- 'Sun num n'i vult dire a ore': identity matters at Barking Abbey / Delbert Russell -- 'Ce qu'ens li trovat, eut en sei': on the equal chastity of Queen Edith and King Edward in the Nun of Barking's La vie d'Edouard le confesseur / Thelma Fenster -- Body, gender, and nation in the lives of Edward the confessor / Jennifer N. Brown -- Clemence and Catherine: the Life of St. Catherine in its norman and anglo-norman context / Diane Auslander -- Cicero, Aelred and Guernes: the politics of love in Clemence of Barking's Catherine / Donna Alfano Bussell -- The authority of diversity: communal patronage in Le Gracial / Emma Bérat -- III. Barking Abbey and the later middle ages -- Keeping body and soul together: The charge to the Barking Cellaress / Alexandra Barratt -- Rhythmic liturgy, embodiment and female authority in Barking's Easter plays / Jill Stevenson -- Liturgy as the site of creative engagement contributions of the nuns of Barking / Anne Bagnall Yardley
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