Status and Social Roles of Women in Central Europe in the Middle Ages

Beata Możejko is a full Professor at the Faculty of History of the University of Gdańsk. She is the author of over 150 articles and publications and six monographs, including Peter von Danzig: The Story of Great Caravel 1462–1475 (2020) and Studies on Late Medieval Gdańsk (2025).Aneta Pieniądz is Associate Professor in Medieval History at the University of Warsaw. She is the author of Fraternal Bonds in the Early Middle Ages (2023) among other publications and is currently working on a project devoted to the history of the relationship between bees, forests, and beekeepers in medieval and early modern Poland. Magdalena Biniaś-Szkopek is Professor at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, heads the Department of Archivistics, Faculty of History and serves as Director of the Polish Academy of Sciences Kórnik Library. Her publications include Marriage in Medieval Poland (2024) and over 30 scholarly studies on medieval and nineteenth-century Poland.

• Introduction 1. Biblical Models of Women and Femininity in the Oldest Polish Chronicles as a Hermeneutical Problem 2. Sophia of Halshany, the Fourth Wife of Władysław Jagiełło, as a Mother 3. Women, Asceticism and Control over the Body in the High Middle Ages: The Case of Thirteenth-Century Polish Saint-Duchesses 4. Women in Action: The City as a Space of Female Devotion (Four Case Studies from Kraków) 5. Clausura, Visuality and Materiality: Spiritual Life and Visual Culture of Women’s Quasi-Monastic Communities in Late Medieval Bohemia 6. The Role of Women in Polish Medieval Cities: Prospects and Needs of Research 7. Widows and Widowhood in the Thoughts of Late Medieval Theologians 8. A Noblewoman’s Social Identity in Late Medieval Poland 9. The Peasant Woman in Late Medieval Poland: One Estate of Realm – Different Quality of Life 10. Women of Different States Appearing in Medieval Church Courts in Poland