Holy Motherhood: Gender, Dynasty and Visual Culture in the Later Middle Ages Book

List of plates

List of figures

Family trees of the houses of France, Anjou, Brittany and Burgundy

Introduction 1

Pt. I Gender, agency and the interpretation of marital culture 23

1 The situational eye: viewing, gender and response in the later middle ages 25

2 De conceptione ad partum: saints, treatises and prayers for successful childbirth 44

3 The lying-in month and the rite of churching: post-partum rituals and the material culture of childbearing 76

Pt. II Manuscript case studies from the houses of Anjou, Brittany and France 111

4 Holy mothers, sainted monarchs and beata stirps: The Fitzwilliam Hours and Books of Hours for the house of Anjou 113

5 Steriles fecundas fecisti: viewing and reading holy motherhood in the manuscripts of four duchesses of Brittany 199

Conclusion 248

Appendix I prayer and translation from the Hours of Marguerite of Foix 257

Appendix II prayer and translation from the prayer book of Anne of Brittany 260

Bibliography 263

Index 278