Women in the Middle Ages:  The Lives of Real Women in a Vibrant Age of Transition by Frances and Joseph Gies is a 264-page softcover published by Barnes & Noble Books, a division of Harper & Row, Publishers, first published in 1978, this is the first Barnes & Noble edition, published in 1980.  Both the cover and the inside are clean and in good condition. 

Book Summary

Women in the Middle Ages corrects the omissions of traditional history by focusing on the lives, expectations, and accomplishments of medieval women.  The Gieses' lively text, illuminated by illustrations from medieval manuscripts, art, and architecture, depicts the Middle Ages as a vibrant time in which women were powerful agents of change.

The first part of the book gives the historical and cultural background for the lives of the women discussed.  The authors offer a succinct but penetrating review of the religious, scientific, and philosophical attitude that defined women's place in the medieval world.

The seven women represent different classes, countries, and centuries:  Hildegarde of Bingen, twelfth-century German nun and gifted mystic; Blanche of Castile, queen of France; Eleanor de Montfort, real-life inspiration for a thirteenth-century romatic tale; Agnes li Patiniere, a Flemish textile worker; Alice Beynt, an English peasant women; Margherita Datini, wife of an Italian merchant; and Margaret Paston, partner of her husband and sons in the conflicts of pre-Tudor England.