Questions dominant historical narratives and shows the ways they have influenced modern understanding of pre-modern women's roles in their social and intellectual world.~Offers an alternative historiography that enables voices that are generally marginal to be heard~Demonstrates the ways in which labels and libels were fluid, socially constructed, and reflective of the time in which they emerged~Examines the continuities from the later medieval through the early modern period~Brings together a wide array of manuscript and archival material (primarily in Latin and Middle Dutch)