Description:
The Distaff Gospels, a fascinating fifteenth-century collection of more than 250 popular beliefs, constitutes a kind of encyclopedia of late medieval women's wisdom.
Review Quotes:
"This first English modern translation of The Distaff Gospels gracefully renders the somewhat recondite late medieval French of the original into elegant and faithful yet contemporary prose. The editors' introduction frames well and cogently the issues germane to the production of this text, including transgendered expression, the culture of the 'World Upside Down' in which women may have their say, archeological information about practices of midwifery in the era, and the folkloric aspect and popular content of short narrative. The book is simultaneously inter-disciplinary, an inventive reconstruction, and a scholarly edition, and succeeds admirably at all three." -- Catharine Randall, Fordham University