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JERZYSTRZELCZYK
languagethatmattered.IntheearlyMiddleAgesthesituationchanged:in
theWest,LatinwasthedominantlanguagewhileGreekbecamenearlyfor-
gotten,andintheGreekEast,women’swritingwasbarelyalive.Fromthe
generalEuropeanpointofview,theexceptionssuchastheliteraturesofthe
Celtic(especiallyWelshandIrish),Anglo-Saxon,Nordic(Scandinavian),
and–toacertainextent–alsotheOldChurchSlavonicculturesremained
marginal,eventhoughtheydidexertsomeinfluenceontheideasandlit-
eratureoftheEuropean“core.”Allthesame,inthoseliteratureswomen’s
writingwas,asfarasweknow,veryrare.Inthe11thcentury,andespecially
inthe12thcentury,whenintellectuallifeflourished(theRenaissanceofthe
12thcentury),vernacularlanguagesenteredliteratureandwritingnotonly
proliferated,butalsodiversifiedlinguistically.Nexttoliteraturecomposed
inLatin,thereappearedworkswritteninsuchlanguagesanddialects1as
OldGerman,Provençal,Anglo-NormanandOldSpanish(muchlateralso
Slavoniclanguages).Itofferedgreaterpossibilitiestowomen’swriting.
AlthoughintheearlyMiddleAgeswomenwereoccasionallybetter
educatedthanmen,normallytheycouldnotprofitfromsystematicstud-
ies.Sucheducationwasonlypossibleatthecourtsofenlightenedkings
andqueens,andtoalesserextentalsoinaristocraticresidencesandinthe
moreprivilegedconventsofthe“Imperialabbeys”inEastFrancia(i.e.in
Germany)ofthe10thand11thcentury,undertheSaxon(Liudolfing)and
Saliandynasties.Theliterarytalentofwomencouldbestbenoticedinar-
easthatdidnotrequiretheregular“academic”training.Moreover,therec-
ognitionofvernacularlanguages,which,unlikeLatin,didnothavetobe
learntfromscratch,gavewomentheopportunitytocreateliterature.They
couldexpressthemselvesinpoetryandotherlyricalwritingsaswellasin
epistolography,hagiography,mysticalandtypicallypragmatic(e.g.medi-
calorparamedic)literature;itwashardertodosointheology,philosophy,
historiographyandthesevenliberalarts.However,ifonewantedtoreach
widercircles,notlimitedbyalanguage,onestillhadtowriteinLatin–and
itremainedsoforthenextfewcenturies.
Whiletheliteraryresearchusedtofocusmainlyonthe“high-brow”lite-
rarymainstream,andthebasiccriterionofassessmentwasoriginality,the
moremarginalliteraryphenomenawereeithercompletelydisregardedor
receivedperfunctorytreatment,unlesstheobjectofresearchwassomeone
outstanding(suchasMariedeFrance,discussedbelow).Ofcourse,inter-
1Idonotaspiretothecorrectnessinthecomplexnomenclatureoftheselanguages.
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