Holy Motherhood

Elizabeth L'Estrange is a Lecturer in the History of Art at the University of Birmingham

• List of illustrations List of figures Preface and acknowledgements Family trees of the houses of France, Anjou, Brittany and Burgundy Introduction Part I Gender, agency and the interpretation of material culture 1. The situational eye: viewing, gender and response in the later middle ages 2. De conceptione ad partum: saints, treatises and prayers for successful childbirth 3. The lying-in month and the rite of churching: post-partum rituals and the material culture of childbearing Part II Manuscript case studies from the houses of Anjou, Brittany and France 4. Holy mothers, sainted monarchs and beata stirps: the Fitzwilliam Hours and Books of Hours for the house of Anjou 5. Steriles fecundas fecisti: viewing and reading holy motherhood in the manuscripts of four duchesses of Brittany Conclusion Appendix I: prayer and translation from the Hours of Marguerite of Foix Appendix II: prayer and translation from the Prayer Book of Anne of Brittany Bibliography Index

The intersection of gender, social practice, and feminine agency underpins much of this literature. Elizabeth L’Estrange makes an important contribution not only to these debates, but to the fields of medieval art history and manuscript studies.