{"product_id":"a-legend-of-holy-women-9780268012953","title":"A Legend of Holy Women","description":"\u003cp\u003eSheila Delany's spirited translation of Osbern Bokenham's \u003ci\u003eLegendys of Hooly Wummen\u003c\/i\u003e (1443–1447) makes available in modern English the first all-female hagiography. Closely translated from elaborate, Latinate Middle English verse into fluent prose, \u003ci\u003eA Legend of Holy Women\u003c\/i\u003e contains the Augustinian friar’s version of the stories of 13 women saints from gospel, apocrypha, martyrology, and high-medieval history. As Delany writes in her comprehensive introduction, “Bokenham gives us not only an all-female hagiography—an authorial decision significant in its own right—but a gallery of powerful, articulate women who are indubitably worthy to do God’s work. Some of them are well-educated, some give sound political advice to a monarch, some preach, converting hundreds and thousands to Christianity, some walk on water or perform resurrection. Nor are they pacifists; on the contrary, they call for divinely inflicted vengeance and approve violence in their cause.” Delany argues that Geoffrey Chaucer’s \u003ci\u003eLegend of Good Women\u003c\/i\u003e provided a principle of selection and of arrangement for Bokenham’s array of saints. She suggests further that the friar’s choice of all-female hagiography, and his poetic representation of holy women, are closely linked to patronage and politics in fifteenth-century England. The translation is accompanied by full notes which, along with the introduction, make the book accessible to a wide audience. It will appeal to all readers interested in the representation of women in late-medieval culture as well as to scholars and students in medieval, renaissance, religious, and women’s studies.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sheila Delany","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49013107130619,"sku":"9780268012953","price":29.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0779\/3917\/9771\/files\/CoreSourceHub_57d7d71b-3ce6-4a98-b7f0-303c8d9e97b0.jpg?v=1782574014","url":"https:\/\/indiepubs.com\/products\/a-legend-of-holy-women-9780268012953","provider":"IndiePubs","version":"1.0","type":"link"}