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birthing scrolls

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Chapter 9 - Women’s Learning and Lore
from III - Health, Conduct, and Knowledge
- By Martha W. Driver
Edited by Corinne Saunders, Durham University, Diane Watt, University of Surrey
Book:

Women and Medieval Literary Culture

Published online:

28 July 2023

Print publication:

17 August 2023, pp 179-205
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Summary

Starting with the early Middle Ages and offering a broad survey through to the start of the early modern period, this essay examines a range of charms, incantations, prayers, talismans, amulets, recipes, and remedies. Many of these were certainly used for women and sometimes by women, such as charms on birthing scrolls or girdles. The analysis reveals the unexpectedly wide range of areas of expertise ascribed to medieval women, as is illustrated by Christine de Pizanߣs writings on warcraft and chivalry, and the guide to hunting, hawking and heraldry attributed to Dame Juliana Berners (The Book of St Albans). Finally, the essay looks at the extremely varied and encyclopaedic advice available to women found in the compendium known as The Kalender of Shepherds (c. 1490), an important source of folk belief, demonstrating the diversity of medieval womenߣs lore.