This volume challenges traditional views of women’s engagement with text in late-medieval convents, moving beyond the idea of passive reception to highlight their active and creative use of writing. It explores diverse literary activities, such as reading aloud, singing, redacting, translating, and authoring. Through detailed case studies, the contributions investigate how factors like historical developments, social shifts, communal life, and personal networks influenced women’s access to and interaction with text. The studies emphasise the fluidity of textual transmission and adaptation within convents, demonstrating that women’s text use was highly contextualized and dynamic. Ultimately, the volume seeks to diversify our understanding of readership by examining specific social and literary contexts, and questioning the essentialising of gender differences in reading practices.

This volume challenges traditional views of women’s engagement with text in late-medieval convents, moving beyond the idea of passive reception to highlight their active and creative use of writing. It explores diverse literary activities, such as reading aloud, singing, redacting, translating, and authoring. Through detailed case studies, the contributions investigate how factors like historical developments, social shifts, communal life, and personal networks influenced women’s access to and interaction with text. The studies emphasise the fluidity of textual transmission and adaptation within convents, demonstrating that women’s text use was highly contextualized and dynamic. Ultimately, the volume seeks to diversify our understanding of readership by examining specific social and literary contexts, and questioning the essentialising of gender differences in reading practices.