This review is for the ebook of this title. My main recommendation would be to buy this book in print or to read it on a colour tables or Ereader that can process pictures better. I think I missed out on alot of the enjoyment of this book as my Kindle is a simple model.

Aside from that, this book was amazing. It blew open all the preconceived ideas we have about women in the middle ages. Not all women were damsels or witches or peasant women with children hanging off them, no women had a place and role in society. It was a perfect book for the current headlines of women smashing glass ceilings. Apparently we've been doing it since the middle ages, but history didn't want us to know.

Grab this book for a flick through, a conversation starter or to while away a weekend with a few classes of wine and an eye opening lesson.

This is an absolutely beautiful book that is both a treat to art and history lovers alike (and of course, art history fans will be double pleased!)

I really enjoyed the illustrations in this book and would love to have gone to the exhibition where they were displayed. Each image shows a woman, or was created by a woman. The images range from religious scenes to mythical figures to portraits of the owner, and all are fascinating.

The accompanying text points out repeated themes and motifs, as well as elaborating on the stories of the women pictured in them, and the women who commissioned or illustrated them. It isn't particularly in-depth, but the "point" of this book is certainly the images, which are worth studying for the intricate artwork.

I was interested in reading this book since it first came out. The description, cover and reviews made it sound - if not groundbreaking, at least really insightful, opening a door into the lives that women led in medieval times. Sadly, I didn't seem to like it as much as everyone else did, but it is still a decent read with good illumination reproductions, who often turned out to be better than the text surrounding them.

The fact that I didn't enjoy Sciacca's small, treasury, half-illustrated encyclopedia is that I had known most to all of these things before and I'm not saying that lightly. I am not a medieval history expert or a reference librarian, but I've always had a big interest in history, and explored the subjects that especially interested me - lives of medieval women in the shadows of their more powerful and well-known husbands being one of them. Some of the sentences in this one struck me as simple, basic and unnecessary, such as this one: "Women were expected to give birth to children." or "Women did not play as large role in politics as much as they husbands did." To anyone having any previous knowledge, that would be obvious. And most of the topics depicted here often use a couple of repetitive words, sentences and especially phrases. "Role of women" and "it suggests/implies" were featured really prominently throughout.

The text didn't really depict the lives of medieval women or illuminations showing them. How, you may wonder? Let me explain. First of all, most of these are just Bible story illuminations and there is quite a few initials (big, full-colored letters with leaf swirl around it at the beginning of each chapter in the book of hours). And the author took to explain what fabric is Saint Hildegarde wearing, what house did that coat of arms belong to, who the artist might have been and what is the composition of the painting. And the focus on medieval women? Well, there is only a few (and by that, I mean no more than seven or eight) illuminations showing real medieval women doing their domestic, everyday work. Which is strange, as this book counts over a hundred reproductions. Women working in the field, at home, or actually doing their job with making and illuminating books of hours and gospels isn't really shown, nor did we got an insight into it. One of the texts following an image implies that the workshop's owner's wife <i>might</i> have been helping him craft a book, and nothing more. It ends on that. Just a brief note of something that might have been, but it is unsure whether it really happened or not. And if it did, we do not even learn what the woman (Jeanne)'s role might have been. Did she draw the painting, color it, scribe the text, or was just helping around while her husband and the apprentices did the hard work? Christine Sciacca offered no answer to that question.
And about my favorites... Virgin Mary receiving message from Archangel Gabriel in a typical 16th century Flemish household (with windows, tables, tapestries, everything looking authentic - just not for the bible story) made me dead laugh. Now, that must have been relatable to the book of hours' owners! And there is another, where Mary meets Elizabeth and both women share the news of their miraculous pregnancies - in a medieval French village, with the almost fairy tale aesthetic rooftops and haymakers in the field. Loved that one as well.

All in all, this is a little disappointing, but not a quite disatisfying read. Just regard it as being a little longer tourist/museum brochure, with nice reproduction of the paintings you'll see and where they may originate from - a lot of time is spent following clues of what the owner's name might have been, in the cases it is not known; for example, daisies (<i>marguerites</i> in French) imply that the owner's name might have been Margaret, etc. - and you'll end up liking it. Recommended to those with a specific interest in illuminations, medieval texts and art or the ones who'd like to get a basic viewpoint of medieval women's lives. Interesting, but not quite educating or referencial.

My first ARC from NetGalley, but I hope not to be the last!

This book is full of beautiful illustrations from illuminated manuscripts. There is some text explaining each one, but I was in it for the artwork.

A beautiful and informative book of women in medieval times, and their representations in art and books, as well as their influence in the making of said books and art.

A lovely exploration of women in Medieval art - it was great to get past the more traditional ideas of who was represented and why.

I received the book in .pdf format as an advance copy in exchange for a fair review, my thanks to Netgalley and Getty Publications.
I can honestly say I am impressed by the quality of the volume and the way the author has presented and laid out book. The illustrations are very good and the supporting text sufficient to wet the appetite to read all and find out more. A well earned five stars and I will be buying the hardback at Christmas for my partner.

This is a beautiful book, in which the images are well supported by the text. The majority of manuscripts covered are of Western European origin and Christian in focus, but Ethiopian and Persian manuscripts are also represented, as are a number of beautifully-illuminated works in Hebrew. All the major female saints are covered, along with donor portraits and female characters in popular romances. The text gives hints of information about the women who actually handled these manuscripts, either as patrons or as professional scribes and illuminators, and a section at the end of the book provides suggestions for further reading on the lives of women in the Middle Ages. Experts may find little that is not already covered elsewhere, but for a reader interested in learning more about women's history in an artistic context, this is an excellent place to start.

A beautifully put together book. It was fascinating to see so many intricate illuminations from the period.
Definitely an exhibition to see!

This book is very comprehensive in looking at graphic depictions of women in medieval society. Using pictures from the Getty collection one gets a sense of the breadth of the life of Women in European society both east and west as well as in Ethiopia.

Its a very happy experience to see a greater range of depiction than one would have seen before in previous books on this subject. I would highly recommend the sumptuous volume of pictures to anyone interested in medieval life, the history of women or the development of art

Brilliant and fascinating work! Design and layout are very clean and organised so the illuminations really pop out.

Very interesting exposition on some 100 illuminations gathered together for an exhibition at the Getty Museum this year. The purpose: to show the place and roles of medieval women revealed in these small works of art. They are beautifully reproduced here. The place of the medieval women can be inferred from the ownership and creation of the original books themselves. This work's stated purpose is to increase insight into the daily lives of medieval women. Among the basics found: that women, at least wealthy women, owned, commissioned and sometimes even produced these works. While men dominated in other areas of the arts, women did have a major role in creating illustrated manuscripts, books of hours. Subjects included the lives of the saints, stories from the bible, scenes from life. There are scenes depicting medieval women with angels interceding for them with Mary or Jesus. There is even a scene of childbirth. Religion is the center of life and women are the center for carrying belief forward.

Whether a book such as this will interest a reader will depend on may things: are you open to religious art, for that is what much of these illuminated manuscripts are; do you simply enjoy medieval art; are you interested in the art of or for women of medieval times and how it may express their lives? If the answer to any of these questions is at all positive, you should check out this book

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I've always thought boos and stories about women in other ages were interesting to read about. A Distant Mirror comes to mind as one of the first I read ages ago and was hooked! I thought this was a nice overview with short bios of many women, saints, scholars, everyday women and royals. Not a bad read, just not highly retailed or analyzed. The illustrations look good- copies of illuminated pages from books- and interesting in themselves.

This is a simply wonderful book which examines the role of women in the male-dominated and highly religious medieval world, telling the story through fabulous illuminated manuscripts drawn from the Getty Museum's manuscript collection. These manuscripts come from across Europe and the Mediterranean and the they are exquisite. They illustrate the varying roles of women - the positive roles of wife, mother, nun and the negative images such as the Whore of Babylon and Eve. They also reflect noblewomen with some power and influence who could deploy their social and political skills either overtly or through more subtle actions as well as images of women of lower social status attending to work in agricultural activities (idealised of course - there is no sign of poverty or squalor). In particular, the life of the Virgin Mary, the ultimate female role model in medieval society, figures prominently in many of the manuscripts, together with the lives of other saints and figures from the Hebrew bible such as Judith & Holofernese, although some figures more contemporary with the painters of these manuscripts also appear.

What a wonderful book this was, full of beautiful Medieval Illustrations, with explanations and captions. It truly does 'Illuminate Women in the Medieval World', in their lives, work, social interactions, family life and attitude to religion.
A fascinating short, but a rich book for anyone interested in Medieval Women. This Medievalist would certainly treasure a copy.

Requested from the Publisher via Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review and all opinions expressed are my own.

This is a book that needs to be viewed in his-res, full colour. The example images of the illuminated manuscripts are the real treasure here - I loved seeing the detail and colour that went into these works. I'd almost have liked to see more, although I know the images presented were obviously very carefully chosen!

The subject of women in these texts was very interesting, and one that I didn't have a lot of prior knowledge on. Although the text of the work is short (this is not a long book by any means) it gave a good introduction to several female biblical figures, and the cultural background behind the creation of these texts. This book is like an appetizer meant to pique your interest on the subject - and it does that very well! After finishing the book (and going back through it again to do a second/third viewing of all the illustrations) I embarked on a wikipedia research journey to delve a little bit deeper into the Book of Hours and see more examples of this kind of illuminated work!

A beautiful and informative book about women in the mediaeval world I read this on Kindle so didn't have access to colour plates but will be buying the boat for the plates because even in black and white they are amazingly detailed I've read a great deal about mediaeval men and women but this book brings across just how strong these women were and they had the same hopes and dreams that we do today it completely relevant even now I would recommend this book to anyone that has an interest in art or history or women in general absolutely wonderful book I cannot recommend it enough also my congratulations to the author for bringing these women alive so vividly

Gorgeously illustrated with depictions of women from Christian, Jewish and Eastern manuscripts, this short book(let) gives a brief history of women as they were shown in various guises, from saints to sinners. As there is so little material about women in medieval times generally, this was a fascinating glimpse into this era. I would have liked it to be longer, but it was written to accompany an exhibition at the Getty Museum and thus somewhat brief.

Review of a digital copy from the publisher.