ABSTRACT
A variety of texts in both Latin and the vernacular were authored by women in medieval Germany, the range of literary genres comprising diplomatic texts, poetry, plays, letters, treatises, hagiographical and visionary prose, and more. Female authorship grew over the centuries with the increase of monastic centres, where knowledge was produced and transmitted. The texts originating from religious contexts in particular usually emerged from collective settings, thereby eluding modern notions of individual authorship. Medieval authorship has proved itself to be complex and often collective. Even individual writers such as Hildegard of Bingen or Gertrude the Great of Helfta relied on a communal writing environment.
