Literary Mecca: Sterling Memorial Library

I lost myself in the stacks today, both literally and figuratively. I wandered in around 12:30 in search of literature about music and women in Medieval culture--I am having trouble narrowing my focus for my final project, but I think I am headed in one of these two directions--and I emerged over three hours later with seven texts and a leather-bound volume buzz. (Actually I had 12 texts, but only seven would fit in my backpack. This was a valuable lesson in prioritizing. I won't make the same mistake during next week's visit!)

These titles made the first cut. My own version of "America's Got Talent", if you will. I'm especially excited to see what Venemous Tongues holds inside. Subtitled "Speech and Gender in Late Medieval England", it seems very interesting at first glance, especially for me, a person who rarely holds her tongue. I have a feeling such a thing would have been punishable in Medieval times. Medieval Single Women, with chapters titled "Fourteen degrees of active lechery" and "Seven states of chastity", should also prove enlightening, especially since history and literature typically report of single women during these times to be of basest degree in every quality. I'll let you know if Cordelia Beattie paints a similar picture or turns assumptions out on their asses by liberating the image of Medieval single women everywhere!