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Chapter 6 - What the Paston Women Read

from II - Circles and Communities in England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2023

By
Diane Watt
Edited by
Corinne Saunders  and
Diane Watt
Corinne Saunders
Affiliation:
Durham University
Diane Watt
Affiliation:
University of Surrey
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Summary

This essay explores the unique insights into the lives and book ownership of the Paston family offered by its fifteenth-century correspondence. It looks at three Paston women ߝ Agnes Berry Paston, her daughter-in-law Margaret Mautby Paston, and Margaretߣs daughter Elizabeth Paston (Yelverton) ߝ and the books that were in their possession or that they may have read. Putting the evidence concerning book ownership provided by wills, for example, alongside that of letters provides intriguing insights into the spirituality and influence of women, and the value they placed on devotional and moral works. The Paston womenߣs reading also included secular romance, the interest of which may have been as much political as personal. The reading interests of such women, then, extended far beyond the narrowly domestic.

Keywords

Paston lettersbook ownershipdevotional workssecular romancewillscorrespondenceliteracy
Type
Chapter
Information
Women and Medieval Literary Culture
From the Early Middle Ages to the Fifteenth Century
 , pp. 124 - 138
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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References

Further Reading

Bryan, Jennifer (2007). Looking Inward: Devotional Reading and the Private Self in Late Medieval England, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Davis, Norman, ed., vols. 1 & 2, and Beadle, Richard, and Richmond, Colin, eds., vol. 3. (2004–5). Paston Letters and Papers of the Fifteenth Century, 3 vols., Early English Text Society S.S. 20–2, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Krug, Rebecca (2002). Reading Families: Women’s Literate Practice in Late Medieval England, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Moss, Rachel M. (2013). Fatherhood and Its Representations in Middle English Texts, Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.Google Scholar
Richmond, Colin (2000). The Paston Family in the Fifteenth Century: Endings, Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Rosenthal, Joel T. (2010). Margaret Paston’s Piety, New York: Palgrave.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warren, Nancy Bradley (2001). Spiritual Economies: Female Monasticism in Later Medieval England, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watt, Diane (2007). Medieval Women’s Writing: Works by and for Women in England, 1100–1500, Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Watt, Diane (2020). The Paston Women and Chaucer: Reading Women and Canon Formation in the Fifteenth Century, Studies in the Age of Chaucer 42, 337–50.Google Scholar
Whitehead, Christiania (2003). Castles of the Mind: A Study of Medieval Architectural Allegory, Cardiff: University of Wales Press.Google Scholar

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