Dr. Hope Williard, University of Lincoln
Readings and Resources (freely available online)
- Joan M. Ferrante, ‘Caesaria, abbess of Arles’, Epistolae: Medieval Women’s Latin Letters. New York: Columbia University, 2014.
- Professor Ferrante’s translation of Caesaria’s letter to Radegund.
- Poitiers, Bibl. Mun., MS 250, with beautiful illustrations of Radegund’s life, has been fully digitized and is available online.
- Erin T. Dailey, ‘Misremembering St. Radegund’s Foundation of Sainte-Croix in Poitiers’, in Erfahren, Erzählen, Erinnern: Narrativ Konstruktionen von Gedächtnis und Generation in Antike und Mittelalter, ed. Benjamin Pohl et al. (Bamberg: University of Bamberg Press, 2012), pp. 117–40.
Discussion Questions
- What were the possibilities and limitations of monastic life for early medieval women?
- What might this letter tell us about Merovingian women’s literacy?
- What is asceticism? How is it depicted in this letter?
Bibliography (available as e-books through library subscriptions)
- Angelo Di Berardino, ed. Encyclopedia of Ancient Christianity (Downers’ Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 1994-2013), pp. 1:407 (biography of Caesaria) and 3:374 (biography of Radegund).
- Jo Ann McNarama and John E. Halborg, with E. Gordon Whately, Sainted Women of the Dark Ages (Durham: Duke University Press, 1992), pp. 112-8.
Further Reading (available online through library subscriptions)
- Magdalena Elizabeth Carrasco, “Spirituality in Context: The Romanesque Illustrated Life of St. Radegund of Poitiers (Poitiers, Bibl. Mun., MS 250).” The Art Bulletin 72: 3 (1990), pp. 414–435.
- Jennifer C. Edwards, Superior Women: Medieval Female Authority in Poiters’ Abbey of Sainte-Croix (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019), pp. 25-59.
To Cite This Page
Williard, Hope, “An Introduction to the Letter of Caesaria of Arles to Radegund of Poitiers,” Middle Ages for Educators, May 8, 2020. Accessed[date]. http://middleagesforeducators.com/uncategorized/an-introduction-to-the-letter-of-caesaria-of-arles-to-radegund-of-poitiers,-by-hope-williard/