The prologue of this book, entitled ‘Voices from the Past’, begins with a statement and a question. “In the Middle Ages, half of all those who entered religious houses were women. Why then, do we hear so little about them?” As the text of this wonderfully insightful account of the life of nuns unfolds, it becomes clear that these women are not hidden in history, but by history, that is, by the construction of the past by historians. Medieval women religious may be invisible in traditional scholarship, but there are many contemporary sources which, if brought to light, reveal them to be significant as individuals and as members of their institutions, female communities many of which were powerful and influential. The Life of Nuns makes use of a number of remarkable sources to illustrate these points. First, there is the diary of a sister of Heilig Kreuz Kloster, which lay just outside the town gate of Brunswick; for over twenty years, she kept a meticulous record of events, ordinary and extraordinary. She seems to have died in 1507 when, at a time of plague, the diary ceases abruptly. Second, we have the devotional manuals of the Cistercian nuns of Kloster Medingen. Third, the authors draw on the letter collection – over 1800 of them – covering the years 1460–1560, which have survived from the archive of Kloster Lüne. These written sources are complemented by a wide range of examples from the visual and material culture of female communities. Each of these rich sources, and others, contributes to a discussion that revolves around seven themes: Enclosure; Education; Nuns, Family, and Community; Love and Friendship; Music and Reform; Reformation; and Life and Death.

Monastic life for women – as for men – was one of routine: a daily round of offices sung in the nuns’ church, punctuated by manual labor and sacred reading. One might think that the only women whose day varied would be those with special administrative responsibilities, especially the head of the house. The value of the sources used by the authors is that they illustrate both the routine and the unusual. Consider, for instance, the dilemma of the women of Heilig Kreuz Kloster when they found themselves, in 1492, in the middle of the conflict between Henry V, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, and the town of Brunswick. Located as their house was, on a hill outside the town gate and between the town and the ducal residence, the women were literally “in the middle.” This presented a dilemma. Were they to stay, they might be in the path of an invading force. Were they to go, would they violate their rules of enclosure? And if they left (as they did), where would they go and how would they adapt to new surroundings that were not intended to accommodate religious women and their routines and rituals? It is episodes such as these that illuminate so sharply the lived experience of medieval nuns. We are also invited into the visual culture of the spaces occupied and sometimes shared by the women with others. According to the chronicle of the convent of Wienhausen in Lower Saxony, the wall painting of the church was renovated in 1488 by three nuns, all called Gertrud. They produced what the authors call “one of the richest and most sophisticated iconographic programmes in medieval architecture to have survived in its entirety” (170). The vaulted arch that divided the nuns’ choir from the parish space was richly decorated with depictions of the occupations of the months of the year. The sophistication and intellectual ambitions of female religious find expression in so many ways: the world map produced by the nuns of Ebstorf; the visit of the abbess of Cistercian Derneburg to Heilig Kreuz Kloster in 1487 which led to the abbess of the latter arranging for her eager nuns to visit Derneburg for a year to extend their learning; the intellectual breadth of the women of Heiningen who in the early sixteenth century – as a communal effort – produced the ‘Philosophy Tapestry’, with Lady Philosophy, as described by Boethius in his Consolation of Philosophy, at its center. Inspired by the prioress, Elisabeth Terwins, the edges of the tapestry bear the names of the office holders, thirty-six choir nuns, six lay sisters, and four novices.

To many readers, the intellectual and artistic achievements of these remarkable women – many unnamed and unknown – may come as a revelation. These women are located for us, not only within their own closed communities, but within their wider familial, social, religious, and scholarly networks. The bonds of affection and respect were sustained through the intercessions of the nuns, the advice that was sought and given, and through gifts that were ‘symbolic communication’. Religious women were physically enclosed within their houses and also embedded within their wider communities.

There is so much more to which a reviewer could draw attention. This is a compelling read that fascinates and excites with each new section. The authors are to be congratulated for introducing readers to generations of remarkable women, and the publishers for the high quality of the array of images that allow us a glimpse into the visual and material world of medieval German nuns.