The Distaff Gospels
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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L'Évangile des quenouilles (c. 1480, English: "The spinners' gospel") is a collection of Old French stories put together by Jean d'Arras, Antoine du Val and Fouquart de Cambrai. The frame story is that these are the narratives told a group of ladies at their spinning, who relate the current theories on a great variety of subjects. The work dates from the middle of the 15th century and is of considerable value for the light it throws on medieval manners, and for its echoes of folklore, sometimes deeply buried under layers of Christianity.
There were many editions of this book in the 15th and 16th centuries. A more modern edition (Collection Jannet) had a preface by Anatole France.
Subject matter
The text centers around popular beliefs held by late medieval women. The narrative takes place within the context of a gathering of women who meet with their spindles and distaffs to spin. They discuss folk wisdom related to their domestic lives, including controlling errant husbands, predicting the gender of future offspring and curing common ailments.
English translation
One English edition was printed by the early printer Wynkyn de Worde in English as The Gospelles of Dystaves.
It is now known as The Distaff Gospels.
See also
- Old women
- Women's fiction
- Colard Mansion
- Weaving (mythology)
- Jean d'Arras
- Édouard Brasey (section Le Dernier Pape)
