Written in Latin, Low German and a characteristic hybrid of Low German and Latin, the letters represent a substantial extension of the surviving corpus of texts written independently by women in the Middle Ages. The correspondence produced in female convents where the monastic reforms had successfully imposed strict enclosure on the nuns is particularly instructive because they were existentially dependent on written communications in almost all aspects of life as well as in the administration of their often-extensive land holdings and the exercise of parochial and other rights.

That this special case of communications by nuns has hitherto been largely neglected by researchers is partly because of the often-fragmentary nature of the sources and partly because our knowledge of the inner workings, external actions and social and cultural impact of female convents in general is incomplete. To date, the only collections from the Late Middle Ages that are known are significantly smaller and overwhelmingly originate from female monasteries in southern Germany.

In cooperation with Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf and the University of Oxford

Project description at Gerda-Henkel-Stiftung

Digital edition (in development)

Publication: Netzwerke der Nonnen

PURL: http://diglib.hab.de?link=075

Funding: Gerda Henkel Stiftung, VolkswagenStiftung, Klosterkammer Hannover, Fritz Thyssen Stiftung, Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur

Duration: 2016 - 2028

Project participants: HAB: Torsten Schaßan (contact), Dr. Harald Bollbuck (editor), Johannes Büge (editor), Jacob Möhrke (research assistant, DH), Wolfgang Seifert (former research assistant, DH)

Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf: Prof. Dr. Eva Schlotheuber (project manager), Eva Neufeind (research assistant DH), Dr. des. Philipp Trettin (former project manager)

University of Oxford: Prof. Dr. Henrike Lähnemann (project manager), Dr. des. Lena Vosding (former project manager)