Women's writing in any period remains of critical concern, both at undergraduate and postgraduate level. Alexandra Barratt's edition offers a wide range of texts from the period 1300-1500, including:
Original texts written by women in the Middle Ages
Texts translated by women in the Middle Ages
Prayers, meditations, scriptural comment, and accounts of religious experiences
Educational writings
Romance, poetry
Each poem is given a headnote, giving details of composition, manuscript and sources. Full on-page annotation is provided giving details of allusions to contemporary religious, historical and social issues. A general introduction gives context to all the pieces and provides a penetrating account of the role of women in a burgeoning society of literary and cultural transmission.