Ann Marie Rasmussen is Professor Emerita of Germanic Languages and Literatures at Duke. Her research treats medieval literature and culture from the twelfth century to the Reformation. In her publications she combine gender studies with a variety of other approaches, including manuscript studies, the anthropology of gift-giving, visuality studies, and, most recently, material culture. Sarah Westphal-Wihl is Associate Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures at Rice. She is the author of Textual Poetics of German Manuscripts 1300-1500, a study of how the production of hand-written books reveals aspects of medieval reading and interpretive practice. Her current research is concerned with the representation of women in medieval fictional trials and how it relates to the theory of gender in medieval customary law.

Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1 Die Beichte einer Frau / A Woman's Confession Chapter 2 Schwester Katrei and Die Frau von ein-und-zwanzig Jahren / Sister Catherine and the Twenty-One-Year-Old Woman Chapter 3 Bucherverzeichnis der Elisabeth von Volkenstorff / Elisabeth of Volkenstorff's Booklist Chapter 4 Stiefmutter und Tochter / Stepmother and Daughter (Augsburg Redaction and Nuremberg Redaction) Chapter 5 Ordnung der gemeinen Weiber in den Frauenhausern / Regulations concerning Prostitutes Dwelling in Brothels