ABSTRACT
If Mary Magdalene is, by definition and origin, a controversial and complex figure, comprehending her specific character from a medieval perspective constitutes a particularly difficult ambition for a scholar. First of all, one needs to circumscribe the “late-medieval” time period, which is in itself, elusive and methodologically fallible. Second, one needs to circumscribe the multiplicity of cultural, social, and religious patterns present in Europe at the time scholars assume is the end of the “Middle Ages,” but that others prefer to view as the beginning of a “modern” Renaissance culture.
