Gender and the 'Natural' Environment in the Middle Ages

The later Middle Ages in Europe c.1150–c.1500 can be viewed as an extensive scientific laboratory, with scholars and other writers producing texts that sought to define and redefine the human body – in relation to its daily work and environment, and in relation to God. This volume draws on written and visual evidence from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries, placing gender at the centre of its enquiries, addressing the relationship between the human and the ‘natural’ (including the non-human) at a time when new worlds, new texts and new religious experiences were reshaping the individual and collective relationship with the cosmos, and challenging as well as reinforcing established hierarchies.

‘In the wake of numerous new studies engaged with the concept of nature, this volume offers a range of fascinating papers that examine how individual medieval writers or artists viewed themselves within their material environment. A typically medieval mindset among mystics promoted an allegorical concept of nature, and we read about medieval women’s unique approaches to their natural and social environment. Their struggle, for instance, against men’s tendency to relegate them into a gendered space presents a study of “nature” leading to new insights into women’s individuality, independence and female identity.’

-Dr Albrecht Classen, University of Arizona