Leadership in Medieval English Nunneries

This book comprises eight chapters followed by a conclusion and four appendices containing details of the ‘core monasteries’ in the study, the names of their superiors, an English text of the election of an abbess of Wilton (Salisbury Reg. Langton?) and another of the eulogy for Euphemia of Wherwell from VCH Hampshire. The reviewer would have preferred the two last in the original Latin. Many facets of conventual life are discussed and there is much interesting material derived from a variety of sources, the interpretation of which would merit further critical appraisal. But one cannot help pointing out many shortcomings. This study is heavily influenced by categorisation derived from ‘new social history’—models, roles, power networks and, of course, gender—so that interpretation of evidence becomes too dependent on such concepts. These often do more to obfuscate than to elucidate, while grammatically the persistent use of nouns as adjectives jars. One

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