ATTITUDES TOWARD POST-MENOPAUSAL WOMEN IN THE HIGH AND LATE MIDDLE AGES, 1100-1400

Very little has been written on the subject of old age in pre-industrial Europe and even less on old women. The topic of post-menopausal women in the Middle Ages has not received much attention in historical scholarship. Attitudes Toward Post-Menopausal Women in the High and Late Middle Ages, 1100-1400, examines didactic and prescriptive sources, literary sources, and evidence of lived lives in regard to post-menopausal women during the High and Late Middle Ages in England, France, Germany, the Low Countries, and Italy. It investigates some of the attitudes and perceptions held by medieval writers concerning post-menopausal women and whether their discourses reflected or diverged from how they actually lived their lives.