This lovely book engages with the histories of work, women, and spirituality, as well as with urban and intellectual history. It tells a story of women from diverse class backgrounds living together in spiritual community while maintaining their livelihoods in all facets of the silk trade. Focusing on the community of Beguines, Miller shows how these women interacted with their patrons, their clients, and their spiritual advisors as part of the fabric of the medieval city. Despite rhetoric attacking the beguines as sexually promiscuous hypocrites, Paris’s beguines enjoyed the patronage of Louis IX and thus an association with that king’s renowned piety. Although ultimately not even royal support could save Paris’ beguines from decline during the course of the fifteenth century, Miller’s book highlights the important role of these women in the religious and economic culture of the medieval city.
Chapter 1 focuses on Louis IX’s decision to build and...