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The Wisdom of the Beguines: The Forgotten Story of a Medieval Women's Movement. By Laura Swan. (Katonah, NY: BlueBridge, an imprint of United Tribes Media. 2014. Pp. 202. $16.95. ISBN 978-1-933346-97.7.)
Labels and Libels: Naming Beguines in Northern Medieval Europe. Edited by Letha Boehringer, Jennifer Kolpacoff Deane, and Hildo van Engen. [Sanctimoniales, Vol. 1.] (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols. 2014. Pp. xii, 235. euro80,00. ISBN 978-2-503-55135-7.)
The Wisdom of the Beguines is a general introduction to beguine spirituality written for a general readership; the edited volume Labels and Libels brings together eight studies by specialists on problems of terminology and identity of medieval beguines.
Laura Swan, in her introductory study, proves to be well-read in recent scholarship, although in English only; German scholarship eludes her. She writes an emotive history of beguine spirituality into which she weaves exquisite passages from beguine authors. She is clearly on the lookout for authentic voices of medieval women authors. Although she follows the expert Walter Simons in his study of the label beguine and its connotation of praying laywomen, and although she also states herself that beguines were lay, she is not held back by her own definition and incorporates all kinds of religious women "who gave voice...