Medieval Women's Visionary Literature

Petroff's compilation of visionary writings is wonderful in its breath both in terms of time and women. It stretches from St. Perpetua to Mary of Nijmeghen. In addition to beautiful selections of visionary literature, Petroff provides intelligent introductions which enable a novice reader such as myself to place the women writers in their contexts.

This book is THE starting place for those seeking to understand the variety of women's religious writings and experiences in the medieval west. The chosen texts are very good themselves, and Petroff's commentary is very helpful to modern readers seeking to understand a sometimes alien discourse. I use this as a textbook in religious studies and women's history courses for university freshmen and sophomores and get consistently good comments from my students about the book.