Medieval Woman Book Owners Arbiters Of Lay Piety And...

In the journal article Medieval Woman Book Owners: Arbiters of Lay Piety and Ambassadors of Culture, written by Susan Groag Bell, explains the cultural changes in the Middle Ages. She give details on how the increase in lay piety and vernacular literature were both connected with one another. In addition to this, these two topics played key roles in the changes taking place. The increase in lay piety is said to be a response to the political conflicts, religious demographic, and climatological factors. Susan Groag Bell believes that the role of the women have been overlooked, and says their influence can be found by, looking at the women’s special relationship to books. Looking at manuscripts, articles written by other authors, textbooks, and other primary and secondary sources she breaks her points into three parts. First she looks at medieval laywomen’s’ book ownership, then special relationship the women have to the books, and lastly the influence that the wom an had on the cultural changes because of their relationship to the books. Many advancements played roles, in the growth of peoples’ hunger, to obtain books. Technology had to be one of the bigger factors, as to why books became more available, and easier to read. The invention of the fireplace, allowed people to have more privacy because it allowed people to have smaller rooms, that provided more privacy. Eyeglasses also helped many people be able to read. Since people could be near or far sighted, it was hard, if