Sacred Communities, Shared Devotions: Gender, Material Culture, and Monasticism in Late Medieval Germany by June L. Mecham (review)

Abstract

Sacred Communities, Shared Devotions: Gender, Material Culture, and Monasticism in Late Medieval Germany. By June L. Mecham. Edited by Alison I. Beach, Constance H. Berman, and Lisa M. Bitel. [Medieval Women: Texts and Contexts, vol. 29.] (Turnhout: Brepols. 2014. Pp. xviii, 307. euro85,00 paperback. ISBN 978-2-503-54134-1.)All books are intended to be dialogical, communicating between authors and readers and furthering scholarly exchange. This book, however, exceeds expectations in that it incorporates history with art history, church history, literary history, and musicology. An eager intellectual curiosity and hunger to avail herself of everything written within and about late-medieval women's monasticism appears to have motivated this researcher. Rather than simply following the well-trodden paths of past scholarship, Mecham explores a wide range of source material tradi- tionally belonging to different disciplines in an attempt to find new answers.The book begins with sad information: In the acknowledgments from 2009, June Mecham anticipates that she will not live to see the book in print and thanks Lisa Bitel, Constance Berman, and Alison Beach for agreeing to shepherd the manuscript through to publication. In a second note, dated 2011, Bitel states that the three editors have attempted to preserve Mecham's voice. As a reader who consulted the University Microfilms International copy of the dissertation that served as the basis for this book, this reviewer must express appreciation that the author and editors succeeded in transforming a weighty and detailed elaboration into a nuanced and very readable book.Chapter 1 introduces the heath convents that are central to Mecham's work on the multifaceted piety and devotional practices of religious women. Justifying this focus on the abundance of visual and textual source material, she hones in on six nunneries: Ebstorf, Lune, Walsrode, Isenhagen, Medingen, and Wienhausen, all of which flourished on the low flat plane of the Luneburger Heide during the late Middle Ages. Wienhausen becomes the primary focus-perhaps because of its largely extant architectural complex; its wealth of artistic furnishings, much of which is still in situ; its rich textual sources, some of which are available in published and edited form; and the plenitude of studies undertaken by Horst Appuhn and other German cultural historians. Mecham also draws on comparative material from other women's foundations in the vicinity and cast her net even wider, when appropriate, to gather comparanda from monasteries as distant as Italy.Introducing the houses, Mecham delves into the individual histories and networks that connected them to noble and patristic families. …