Wissenschaft & Forschung
«Um das Heute zu verstehen, muss man die Strukturen des Gestern kennen.»
Bücher und wissenschaftliche Aufsätze
Strukturen faszinieren mich. Individuen agieren innerhalb von wirtschaftlichen, politischen oder institutionellen Strukturen. Welche Rolle haben Akteure, welche Rolle spielen Strukturen bei gesellschaftlichen Veränderungen - damals und heute? Es ist die Frage nach dem Huhn oder Ei, bzw. nach des Pudels Kern.
Bücher
From the Cloister to the State examines the French order of Fontevraud, the largest independent monastic network under female leadership in pre-modern Europe.
Fontevraud was endowed with vast territorial possessions and was one of the most powerful religious institutions in France.
The book discusses the geopolitical value of Fontevraud’s network for the dukes of Brittany, the counts of Bourbon, and, during the Wars of Religion, the kings of France. In addition to Fontevraud’s political role during the Wars of Religion, the book also examines the order’s reforms implemented by Marie de Bretagne and her successors Renée and Louise de Bourbon-Vendôme. These Bourbon abbesses centralized the order’s administration, cut the ties between priories and local aristocratic families, and successfully established the Bourbon-Vendômes as the only patrons of the vast and wealthy network.
This book is essential reading for scholars and students of medieval and early modern history, as well as those interested in political history and the history of religion.
Monastic Women and Secular Economy in Later Medieval Europe, ca. 1200 to 1500 (Routledge: 2024, open access)
This book aims to rewrite the narrative of women and power in medieval society. Based on a rich corpus of sources – systematically collected for the first time – it reveals female monasteries as central and economically able agents in feudal society.
With a chronological focus on the late Middle Ages, this book focuses on four powerful convents located in modern-day France, Germany, and Switzerland. Three of these institutions were aristocratic convents founded in the early Middle Ages. They were endowed with far-ranging feudal prerogatives that were largely, but not exclusively, derived from landed possessions. The fourth convent originated in the thirteenth century and disposed of a primarily monetary economy.
Observed from a longue-durée perspective, Monastic Women and Secular Economy in Later Medieval Europe reveals strategies of adaptations that allowed these different institutions to weather the significant economic changes of the late Middle Ages. Within the context of medieval feudal society, these abbesses and prioresses were authoritative figures. They ruled over territories, dispensed justice, appointed priests, and even sent soldiers to war. Late medieval convents acted as urban landlords and gave credits – they were thus major economic players in the rising cities. These observations of this monograph will force medievalists to reconsider the traditional image of both the “male” feudal Middle Ages and medieval monetary economy.