Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>This book is about the active contributions of women to a late medieval culture of the book. It explores the unique record of literary agency that has survived from the Dominican convent of St. Catherine in Nuremberg through the writing work of the prolific nun, Kunigund Niklasin (d. 1457), scribe and compiler of at least 31 books by the 1450s, and the librarian for her convent’s large library (close to six hundred German-language manuscripts). Appointed to the office of librarian sometime after the convent underwent “observant reform” in 1428 (which advocated a return to strict observance to the monastic rule), Niklasin created two inventories of the convent’s books, one of privately owned books, the other of the convent library. The latter was part of a manual designed to facilitate table reading, the reading (aloud) that took place during daily meals. Initial chapters explore the agency of submission and the role of the nuns’ consent in the reforming of the convent. Subsequent chapters showcase the multiple writerly acts that the creation of the table reading manual entailed; Niklasin’s management of illustration in several books that she herself produced; and Niklasin’s creative editing and reshaping of a book on St. Catherine, the patron saint of the convent. The trajectory of the book thus moves from what constitutes agency in a reform (orthodox) setting to the manifestation of this agency in written form, advocating for a broader notion of authorship and offering an unparalleled window into the active intellectual lives of late medieval women.</jats:p>