Femina: The instant Sunday Times bestseller – A New History of the Middle Ages, Through the Women Written Out of It

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An ambitious project, Ramirez orients each chapter around a particular theme and figure placing the past and present beside one another using modern scientific discoveries and cultural artefacts to provide contextual information for the subject she is discussing. I did feel like it meandered at times, getting lost in the stories of men surrounding the women- often in ways that didn't even connect to the stories of the women meaningfully. I understand that it’s about the wider female experience or their lives but like I say, I think I expected more on specific women. These accounts of how discoveries in the 20th and 21st centuries have allowed for the rewriting of ancient women’s lives are easily the best part of Janina Ramirez’s survey of current scholarship.

From medieval queens, to Viking warriors, Ramírez truly does shine a light into the inner workings of the pre modern ages. Femina is a reassessment of the medieval period, particularly in the role of women in unheard roles, notably in science, governance, clergy and cultural developments. If you're more of a contemporary historian or just fancy a nice history book, this is not your book.These women fought battles, made political decisions, created works of art, even ruled as King (Jadwiga of Poland) and examining their lives sheds light on sometimes neglected aspects of life in the Medieval Period.

There is an irking sense that these prominent women overshadow the over-written or simply forgotten women that make Femina so wonderful. Even when hi-tech methods are not in evidence, the findings still tell us so much about how medieval women’s lives came to be misinterpreted or marginalised in the first place. As ancient DNA genome sequencing and forensic analysis classify this woman as coming from African heritage, Redfern and Ramirez conclude she spent her early years in fourteenth-century Africa.But by re-examining extraordinary women like Hildegard and Margery, casting a new light on over-written females like Æthelflæd and Jadwiga, and using recent discoveries to reconstruct lost individuals like the Loftus Princess and Birka Warrior Woman, the medieval world has taken on a different complexion. s from me, I want to read more on this topic, but next time something a little more of a deep dive rather than a surface insight. However, reading it made me wonder why it is that modern society seems to have regressed so far in this area. Der Texte über den Teppich von Bayeux war ebenfalls deplatziert, man erfährt nichts über die Frauen die den Teppich hergestellt haben (weil es dazu auch gar keine gesicherten Erkenntnisse gibt) - die Autorin gibt nur anekdotisch wieder, was auf dem Teppich zu sehen ist. It is very factual, not ideal for those who don't know much about medieval times as you will be lost.