St. Katherine of Alexandria, Texts and Contexts in Western Medieval Europe edited by Jacqueline Jenkins and Katherine J. Lewis (review)

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

REVIEWS95 text that, he argues, deserves more critical attention despite the author's real deficiencies in writing style and prosody. If, judging a book by its cover, readers expect a collection ofstudies about identity in a wide-range of medieval romances, they will surely be disappointed. However, they will find a number ofsolid investigations that contribute to the field ofMiddle English studies as well as several comparative readings of a variety of interesting works. The collection is most useful to generalists in any field ofmedieval literature— particularly those familiar with the continental tradition in Old French. LYNNE DAHMEN Al Akhawayn University , Ifrane, Morocco Jacqueline jenkins and Katherine j. lewis, eds., St. Katherine of Alexandria, Texts and Contexts in Western MedievalEurope. Medieval Women: Texts and Contexts, 8. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols Publishers, 2003. Pp. xiv, 257. isbn:2—503—51290-9. EUR 67.50. In their introduction to this collection often essays, JacquelineJenkins and Katherine Lewis note that 'a great part of the intrinsic power and popularity ofSt. Katherine in Medieval Europe was her ability to resist easy categorization, and to be many things to many people' (p. 18). In like fashion, the main success ofthe collection is its presentation ofwhat Jenkins and Lewis call 'interdisciplinary and multinational criticism' on St. Katherine's cult both within and beyond the Middle Ages (p. 4). The essays included address many different objects ofstudy (Books ofHours, 'replica shrines' of Mount Sinai, breviary lessons, literary versions of Katherine's life in various languages) while using a wide range of theoretical approaches. The essays are strongest when they are not overly anxious about why Katherine's cult was popular across historical and cultural divides (a question most often answered by the authors with a resigned, 'We don't know.'), but instead demonstrate how the cult enacted its multifaceted nature by interacting (often in quite complex ways) with other cultural constructs (chivalry, aristocracy, lay devotion, or gender categories, for example). Early in the introduction, Jenkins and Lewis present what will become one ofthe main concerns for many ofthe authors: the different audiences for whom Katherine became an object of devotion and study. All but two of the essays focus on lay devotion to the saint. The essays by Christine Walsh and Tracey R. Sands concern themselves with how Katherine's legend might have been read by devotees interested in establishing and/or strengthening their own connections to nobility. Walsh examines devotion to Katherine in eleventh- and twelfth-century Normandy, arguing that it was related to the 'economic and political' interests of those involved. Sands examines naming traditions and sigillographie evidence to argue for a particular popularity for Katherine among medieval Sweden's aristocracy. Many more ofthe essays argue that lay devotion to Katherine might have extended beyond a noble audience. Lewis's fascinating essay argues that laywomen who would not have been able to afford an actual pilgrimage to Mount Sinai (the site of 96ARTHURIANA Katherine's shrine) would have been able to take 'imitative journeys' to that place by visiting those shrines in medieval England built to duplicate the saint's resting place (p. 51). Jane Carrwright attends to the various 'lacks' in the Welsh version of the saint's life {Buchedd Catrín) that distinguish it from other versions in England or the continent (the Welsh version is not concerned with Catrin's nobility or her education) in order to indicate the appeal the legend might have had for a broader audience. Jenkins reads a late medieval prose life of Katherine and places it within the context of'laywomen's reading, devotional practices, and manuscript production' through an examination of Harley MS 4012 which includes an introductory Prohemium indicating 'the legend's intended use as a private devotional and meditative text' (p. 154). Two essays are primarily concerned with how the legend was consumed and altered by clerical audiences. Sherry L. Reames reads breviary lessons on St. Katherine and detects 'a certain degree ofclerical ambivalence' about Katherine's rhetorical skills, her sexuality, and her mystical marriage with Christ (p. 208). Alison Frazier's essay on the Italian humanist Antonio degli Agli's unsuccessful efforts to integrate hagiography and historiography in his De vitis etgestissanctorum similarly notes...