Legend of Good Women: Medieval Women in Towns and Cities

by Erika Uitz

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1559211253
• ISBN13: 9781559211253
• Release Date: September 1994
• Publisher: Moyer Bell
• Length: 200 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 7.5" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

women's lib in the twelfth century

This is a carefully crafted academic study, allowing readers the kind of solid documentation that will make this work a classic reference. Through a careful examination of documents (letters, wills, deeds, contracts, and other public documents), the author traces the growth of new urban centers in Europe in the twelfth through fourteenth centuries. The lifeblood and reason for being for these towns and cities was commerce. Women's lives were radically changed by the economic demands of production for export. Both the need for women's labor in creating goods and conducting business and the partnership aspect that grew within marriages because of this need resulted in widespread changes in law that allowed women to own property, conduct business, and participate in the decisions about their lives. The economic characteristics of the middle ages created the first opportunities in modern history for women to experience some degree of independence and begin the centuries-long process of escaping chatteldom.