Talented women of Dark Ages

I went through more manuscripts and found more interesting personalities from so called Dark Ages.

In my previous post I mentioned that Medieval women worked a lot on illumination. Manuscript illumination affords us many of the named artists of the Medieval Period including Ende, a tenth century Spanish nun; Guda, a twelfth century German nun; Claricia, twelfth century laywoman in a Bavarian scriptorium. Hildegard of Bingen is a particularly fine example of a German Medieval intellectual and artist. She wrote "The Divine Works of a Simple Man", "The Meritorious Life", sixty-five hymns, a miracle play, and a long treatise of nine books on the different natures of trees, plants, animals, birds, fish, minerals, and metals. From an early age, she claimed to have visions. When the Papacy supported these claims by the headmistress, her position as an important intellectual was galvanized. The visions became part of one of her seminal works, which consists of thirty-five visions relating and illustrating the history of salvation. The illustrations showing Hildegarde experiencing visions while seated in the monastery at Bingen, differ greatly from others created in Germany during the same period. They are characterized by bright colors, emphasis on line, and simplified forms. While Hildegard likely did not pen the images, their nature leads one to believe they were created under her close supervision.

Comments

[Geese]

Interesting post.  Another woman I would like to nominate would be Hilda of Whitby.  This was a lady who oversaw the pivotal decision made by King Oswiu in the seventh century as to whether Britain (or more precisely, chunks of England) would follow the Ionan or Roman church. The decision would affect English and indeed British history right up to the Reformation.
Another important female figure would be Edith (Ealdgyth) Swan Neck who was the wife of King Harold.  Legend has it that it was her who identified her husbands grotesquely mutilated body following the Battle of Hastings.  How true this is, is debatable - but it is fairly certain that she influenced him on some of his decisions - which it must be remembered resulted in the demise of Anglo Saxon England.