ABSTRACT
Partnerships between holy women and scribes tend to be characterized as intimate. In describing how she began working with Volmar, for instance, Hildegard says that she “found him and loved him” (Hildegard, Scivias 60). She refers to him elsewhere as her symmysta, meaning “sharer in the mysteries” (Lachman 132). Margery and her scribe share profound experiences too, weeping together during the writing process because they find her visions so moving (Kempe 219). Likewise, Brother A. cries openly when, near the end of his life, Angela gives him a special message from God (Angela, Works 284). The most dramatic depiction of intimacy appears in the biography of Dorothea of Montau, a Prussian mystic who writes collaboratively with the priest Johannes of Marienwerder. Their partnership is characterized as a textual marriage arranged by God, complete with sacred vows and instructions. After Dorothea promises to remain with the scribe “for the rest of her life, never to abandon him,” God encourages the couple to maintain a steadfast and supportive relationship: “You both shall often take to heart how I have brought you together. I have united you just as two people are bound to one another in marriage, and for this reason each of you shall take on the burdens of the other and one help the other so that you both may come to eternal life….” (Marienwerder 128)
The intimate quality of the aforesaid partnerships is especially evident when contrasted with partnerships between scribes and religious men. In the latter, partners are often represented as unsupportive and emotionally distant. For example, when John of Salisbury makes a mistake in grammar, his scribe mocks him (John 183). And when Thomas Aquinas feels deeply moved during the writing process, he sends his scribes out of the room so that he can pray and weep alone (Carruthers 202). Such impersonal interactions occur only rarely in women’s narratives, apart from the notable exception of Margery’s dealings with her second scribe, with whom she has a strictly business relationship. Their relationship is the only one I know of in which the woman’s assistant works for pay (Kempe 4); it is also the only woman’s partnership I know of that is represented as an utter failure. The implied message seems to be that religious women and their assistants should work not for the sake of remuneration, but for love of God and each other.
