Medieval Virtue Ethics and the Formation of the Feminine Moral Subject: Jeanne of Navarre to Marguerite of Navarre (1285-1550)

This project explores the content, context and transformations of ethical discourse on the virtues addressed to medieval women, in particular by creating edition/translations of two influential treatises, Abbey of the Holy Ghost and Mirror of Ladies, composed for Jeanne of Navarre, Queen of France (1285-1305), still read in the early modern period. It will also generate studies of religion, gender and social control in medieval France, and of vernacular transformation of Latin discourse about prudence and the virtues as addressed to women, thus enhancing our understanding of both Christine de Pizan in the early 15th and Marguerite of Navarre in the early 16th centuries respectively.