While there has been a great tradition of scholarship in medieval manuscripts, most studies have focused on the details of manuscript production by male copyists. In this study, Cynthia J. Cyrus demonstrates the prevalence of manuscript production by women monastics and challenges current assumptions of how manuscripts circulated in the late medieval period. Drawing on extensive research into the surviving manuscripts of over 450 women's convents, the author assesses the genres common to women's convent libraries emphasizing a social rather than a codicological understanding of how manuscripts of women's libraries came to be copied.

An engaging mix of biography, women's history, and book history, The Scribes for Women's Convents in Late Medieval Germany will change the way medieval manuscripts are understood and studied.

"‘This beautifully-produced volume is an important study that is significant for the local context of convents in late-medieval Germany and, more broadly, as a model of similar, expansive studies that incorporate women's history, book culture, bibliography, and medieval cultural and religious practices…An impressive survey.’" - Óenach Reviews: vol03:01:2011

"‘Cyrus’s monograph is a fascinating study that deserves close attention because of its focus on medieval women living and working in convents as scribes.’" - Mediaevistik vol 24:2011