Christine Meek

As the introduction states, this had a start in a conference held in Trinity College Dublin in November 1998, organised by two of the contributors. The theme was about a passage from Jacob Burckhardt's study 'The Vicilization of the Renaissance in Italy' where he says that "women stood on a footing of perfect equality with men". This is a spiral from that theme and ideas that came from it.

Catherine Lawless' "'A Widow of God'? St Anne and representations of widowhood in fifteenth-century Florence is an interesting look at how, while St Anne was one of the patron saints of Florence she isn't often depicted as her pseudo-history didn't mesh with social norms.

Men, women and magic: some cases from late medieval Lucca by Christine Meek is a look at some of the ways charlatans tried to part people from their money, and how this was treated as largely the same as cases deemed to be more supernatural in origin.

'She was usually placed with the great men and leaders of the land in the public assemblies' - Alice Kyteler: a woman of considerable power by Bernadette Williams looks at Alice Kyteler, her life, husband and trial for witchcraft. Which didn't really end as you might suppose for the time.

The gift of a lady: women as patrons in medieval Ireland by Elizabeth McKenna looks at the slight greater power of some women in Ireland to bestow gifts than in England

Women and the law in early modern Ireland by Mary O'Dowd looks at how changes from Brehon to English Law sometimes benefited and sometimes didn't women's rights.

Hidden Pleasures: the representation of the prostitute in seventeenth-century Dutch painting by Sacha Fegan looks at how sometimes there's more text in the pictures than you'd expect and some judgement by the painter.

An unequal law: the enforcement of clausura before and after the Council of Trent by Francesca Medioli takes a fairly sympathetic look at the benefits and disadvantages of women being forced to stay in their convents by a ruling from the Council of Trent.

Repression or liberation? Notions of the body among the nuns of Port-Royal by Carol Baxter looks at how food and clothing imposed a de-sexualisation for nuns, and along with a abnegation of the body sometimes had a severe effect on the mentality of the person, and then sometimes actually allowed them certain freedoms.

Writing motherhood in the reign of Louis XIV: some fictional and political representations by Susanne Reid looks at how the written word in the period can tell you something about the role of women and of motherhood and how some women were very worn out by constant pregnancy.

Tragic ambiguities: gender and soverignty in French classical drama by Derval Conroy talks about how, while Salic law prohibited women being in power, some of the dramatists explored how women would treat power and what would happen to a country, often from the point of view that men and women were essentially equal.

It's an interesting collection of thoughts, some I really only skimmed because they would require a lot more reading for me to get the full impact but others I found interesting and made me think how little and much forward we have come in many ways in the treatment of women and the concepts around womanhood.… (meer)