TY  - JOUR
AU  - Albrecht Classen
PY  - 2025
CY  - Berlin, Germany
PB  - Peter Lang Verlag
JF  - Mediaevistik
IS  - 1
VL  - 37
SN  - 2199-806X
TI  - Henrike Lähnemann and Eva Schlotheuber, The Life of Nuns: Love, Politics, and Religion in Medieval German Convents. Cambridge: Open Book Publishers, 2024, vi, 199 pp., 38 color ill.
DO  - 10.3726/med.2024.01.88
UR  - https://www.peterlang.com/document/1672673
N2  - If the present book is representative in any way, then it illustrates pathways toward the future of books at large, whether this is a good development or not. The two authors published a book on late medieval German nuns in 2023 (Berlin: Propyläen), which was quickly sold out and then witnessed a second edition. Encouraged by this success, they agreed to have a slimmed-down (?) version translated into English by Anne Simon, Andrew Dunning, and Cecilia Thon and published by the Open Book Publishers. A whole team of contributors assisted in preparing the manuscript for publication, and the result proves to be quite interesting. There are 38 high-quality color illustrations, and the text at large reads quite well, though there are numerous passages that would need improvements. If I had not found a reference to the three translators, I would have suspected that AI was involved here, which would explain the considerable number of infelicities and mistakes throughout the book.
KW  - henrike, lähnemann, schlotheuber, life, nuns, love, politics, religion, medieval, german, convents, cambridge, open, book, publishers
ER  -