What was it like to be a nun—and a woman—in the early modern age? A new collection in the Sheridan Libraries and University Museums is helping to answer that question, writes Saralyn Cruickshank of Johns Hopkins Magazine.
The Women of the Book collection, which debuted in September 2019, contains more than 425 books, manuscripts, and other printed items produced between 1460 and 1800. The collection centers on the lives of nuns and holy women in Europe and parts of South America.
Learn about how the Women of the Book collection helped one Hopkins graduate student’s research dreams come true in the Winter 2019 issue of Johns Hopkins Magazine.
Through their association with the church, these nuns were granted access to tools of the printed word that would enable them to preserve their histories. Collectively, Women of the Book offers a rare look into the lives of early women.
“Before, it wasn’t practical for scholars to conduct this type of research because the material is so scattered,” says Earle Havens, the Nancy H. Hall Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts. “But we can do it here at Hopkins, now. And that’s the power of the research collection—it brings the world to it.”
Interested in fueling discoveries through the creation of special collections like this one?