Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski | |
---|---|
Born | 1952 (age 71–72) |
Nationality | American |
Occupation(s) | Writer, editor, historian, medievalist, academic |
Known for | Studying Christine de Pizan, Ermine de Reims and Saint Colette |
Title | Distinguished Professor Emerita |
Spouse | Antoni [1] |
Awards | National Endowment of the Humanities (1988, 1991, 2003) and American Council of Learned Societies (2008) Grants, Scholarly Edition in Translation Award (2022) |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | Princeton University |
Thesis | [ ProQuest 303080458 The Traditions of the Old French "Roman de Thèbes": A Poetico-Historical Analysis] (1980) |
Doctoral advisor | Karl David Uitti |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Literature,history,feminist studies |
Sub-discipline | Medieval French literature,literary history |
Notable works | The Strange Case of Ermine de Reims,Poets,Saints,and Visionaries of the Great Schism |
Website | sites |
Renate Elisabeth Blumenfeld-Kosinski,also known as Renate Kosinski,(born 1952) is a German-American medievalist,literary historian,scholar of medieval French literature,editor,writer,and academic. She is known for her books and research on medieval political texts,mysticism,medieval visionary women,religious literature,saints' lives,and the Great Schism of the Western Church. As of 2019,Blumenfeld-Kosinski is a Distinguished Professor Emerita at the University of Pittsburgh, [2] [3] and has been a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America (MAA) since 2014. She served as the president of the MAA from 2020 to 2021. [4] [5] Blumenfeld-Kosinski won the 2022 Scholarly Edition in Translation Award from the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women and Gender (SSEMWG) for her translation of Two Lives of Saint Colette:With a Selection of Letters by,to,and about Colette (2022,Iter Press). [6]
Blumenfeld-Kosinski was born in 1952 in Berlin,Germany. She earned a B.A. in French and English literature from Bonn University (1974),received a B.A. in French from Rutgers University (1975),and an M.A. from Princeton University (1977). Blumenfeld-Kosinski studied for a year (1978–79) at the Ecole Normale Supérieure,the Ecole Nationale des Chartes,and the Ecole des hautes études in Paris. She graduated with a Ph.D. in Romance Languages from Princeton University in 1980. Her thesis was titled 'The Traditions of the Old French "Roman de Thèbes":A Poetico-Historical Analysis' under the supervision of Karl David Uitti. [1]
Since 1978 she has been married to Antoni A. Kosinski,born 1930 in Warsaw,Poland,Distinguished Professor of Mathematics emeritus at Rutgers University. [2]
Blumenfeld-Kosinski began her academic career specializing in Medieval French literature,focusing on the literature of the 12th through 15th centuries. Her scholarship frequently explores religious visions,women's mysticism,and the socio-political contexts of late medieval Europe.
She taught at Columbia University (Mellon Post-doctoral Fellow 1981–1983,Assistant Professor 1983–1989,Associate Professor 1989–1993),and then moved to the University of Pittsburgh in 1994,where she served as Professor (1998–2015) and became Distinguished Professor in the Department of French and Italian (2015–2019). She also served as Director of the Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program and as department chair at Pittsburgh.
In June 2009,Blumenfeld-Kosinski co-organized an international conference in Nicosia,Cyprus,titled "The Age of Philippe de Mézières:Fourteenth Century Piety and Politics between France,Venice,and Cyprus." This event,which explored the spiritual and political dynamics of the 14th century,particularly the life and works of Philippe de Mézières,brought together over thirty scholars from various disciplines. Blumenfeld-Kosinski collaborated with Christopher Schabel,Nicholas Coureas,and Kiril Petkov to organize the conference,which featured a plenary lecture by the historian Philippe Contamine on Mézières' maritime and spiritual journeys between the West and the East. [7]
Blumenfeld-Kosinski was awarded several fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, [8] [9] [10] [11] as well as a grant from the American Council of Learned Societies in recognition of her contributions to medieval studies. [12] She has been a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America (MAA) since 2014. Blumenfeld-Kosinski also served as the president of the MAA from 2020 to 2021.
In November 2015,just a few days after the Paris attacks,Blumenfeld-Kosinski delivered a public lecture at the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. Her talk,titled "Le double rayonnement de Pierre Dubois et de son traitéDe Recuperatione Terrae Sanctae (1307)," explored medieval crusade theory,with a focus on the revolutionary role Pierre Dubois envisioned for women in education and diplomacy. She also examined how Dubois' ideas resonated with 19th-century colonial debates,particularly through Ernest Renan's interpretations of his work. [13]
Blumenfeld-Kosinski's 1990 Not of Woman Born:Representations of Caesarean Birth in Medieval and Renaissance Culture explored how medieval and Renaissance midwives,physicians,and visual artists performed Caesarean sections when women had died during childbirth,how manuscript illuminations depicted the operation,and where the term originated. [14]
In 1997,she returned to some of the themes of her dissertation with her book Reading Myth in order to show how classical mythology functioned as a major source for medieval French literature and how it was transformed to serve new purposes in a Christian context. [15] [16] [17]
Her 2006 book Poets,Saints,and Visionaries of the Great Schism,1378-1417 delves into the role of literature and visionary experiences during the schism and the ways in which poets and visionaries of the time reacted to and tried to intervene in this period of ecclesiastical turmoil. [18] [19] [20]
Blumenfeld-Kosinski's research covers Medieval French literature,medical history,female mysticism,political poetry,and the historical context of the Great Western Schism. She has also contributed to the understanding of little-known figures like Ermine de Reims,a 14th-century visionary,through her book The Strange Case of Ermine de Reims:A Medieval Woman Between Demons and Saints (University of Pennsylvania Press,2015). [21] [22]
In a 2022 interview with Danièle Cybulskie’s The Medieval Podcast, [lower-alpha 1] Blumenfeld-Kosinsk described Ermine de Reims as a largely unknown 14th-century peasant woman who lived through significant hardship. Born just after the Great Plague and dying in 1396 at around forty years old,Ermine was a farmer’s wife who fell on difficult times,especially after becoming a widow. She moved to Reims and made a living by selling straw. However,Ermine became closely connected with an Augustinian cleric named Jean Le Graveur, [lower-alpha 2] and during the last ten months of her life,she experienced terrifying demonic attacks. These supernatural occurrences,including apparitions of animals,snakes,devilish women,and men in leathery outfits,haunted her night and day. Despite being illiterate,Ermine was deeply interested in the Western Schism,a church crisis of her time,which drew Renate’s attention to her. Ermine’s confessor,believing her experiences to be significant,ensured that her revelations were written down. Blumenfeld-Kosinski found Ermine’s story of torment and mystical visions deeply moving,particularly when comparing her to other mystics like Christina von Stommeln. [23]
One of her major focal points has been the late medieval writer Christine de Pizan (c. 1364-c. 1431) to whom she has devoted numerous articles and many of whose works she translated. [lower-alpha 3] Another major interest is Saint Colette of Corbie (1381–1447). Her Two Lives of Saint Colette:With a Selection of Letters by,to,and about Colette (2022,Iter Press) presents translations of two medieval accounts of the life of Saint Colette of Corbie,a significant figure in the reform of the Franciscan orders during the 15th century. The volume includes translations of the Lives written by Pierre de Vaux,Colette's confessor,and Sister Perrine de Baume,a nun from one of the Colettine monasteries. Her translations are based on the 1911 edition by Ubald d’Alençon and provide insight into Colette's life,her spiritual influence,and her interactions with contemporary religious and political figures. The book also includes a selection of letters by,to,and about Colette,color illustrations from a Ghent manuscript,and a map of the monasteries she reformed or founded. The accompanying introduction and notes provide context on Colette's impact,medieval hagiography,and the socio-political landscape of 15th-century France. [24] [25] [26] [27] In 2023,she appeared again on The Medievalist Podcast, where she talked about Saint Colette of Corbie,one of the major yet lesser known French saints according to Kosinski. In this 2023 episode,RBK highlighted the rare situation of a saint,Colette of Corbie (1381-1447), about whom two contemporaries,her confessor Pierre de Vaux and Sister Perrine de Baume,wrote biographies. Both stressed her devotion and asceticism while downplaying her role as one of the great reformers of the Franciscan Order,but some differences between a male and a female perspective are discernible. Both biographies were translated by RBK. [lower-alpha 4] [28]
In 2023,on the occasion of the publication of a bilingual (Middle French and German) edition of Christine de Pizan's Le livre des faiz d'armes et de chevallerie by Earl Jeffrey Richards and Danielle Buschinger,the publisher De Gruyter invited Richards and RBK to give an overview of de Pizan studies during the last forty years. Both Richards and RBK have devoted a great part of their research to Christine de Pizan since their days in Graduate School at Princeton University and most recently had collaborated on the translation of de Pizan's Othea's Letter to Hector. [lower-alpha 5] [29]
Caterina di Jacopo di Benincasa,TOSD,known as Catherine of Siena,was an Italian Catholic mystic and pious laywoman who engaged in papal and Italian politics through extensive letter-writing and advocacy. Canonized in 1461,she is revered as a saint and as a Doctor of the Church due to her extensive theological authorship. She is also considered to have influenced Italian literature.
Christine de Pizan or Pisan,was an Italian-born French court writer for King Charles VI of France and several French royal dukes,in both prose and poetry.
The Book of the City of Ladies,or Le Livre de la Citédes Dames,is a book written by Christine de Pizan believed to have been finished by 1405. Perhaps Pizan's most famous literary work,it is her second work of lengthy prose. Pizan uses the vernacular French language to compose the book,but she often uses Latin-style syntax and conventions within her French prose. The book serves as her formal response to Jean de Meun's popular Roman de la Rose. Pizan combats Meun's statements about women by creating an allegorical city of ladies. She defends women by collecting a wide array of famous women throughout history. These women are "housed" in the City of Ladies,which is actually the book. As Pizan builds her city,she uses each famous woman as a building block for not only the walls and houses of the city,but also as building blocks for her thesis. Each woman introduced to the city adds to Pizan's argument towards women as valued participants in society. She also advocates in favour of education for women.
The Avignon Papacy was the period from 1309 to 1376 during which seven successive popes resided in Avignon rather than in Rome. The situation arose from the conflict between the papacy and the French crown,culminating in the death of Pope Boniface VIII after his arrest and maltreatment by Philip IV of France. Following the subsequent death of Pope Benedict XI,Philip forced a deadlocked conclave to elect the French Clement V as pope in 1305. Clement refused to move to Rome,and in 1309 he moved his court to the papal enclave at Avignon,where it remained for the next 67 years. This absence from Rome is sometimes referred to as the "Babylonian captivity" of the Papacy.
Philippe de Mézières,a French soldier and author,was born at the chateau of Mézières in Picardy.
The Western Schism,also known as the Papal Schism,the Great Occidental Schism,the Schism of 1378,or the Great Schism,was a split within the Roman Catholic Church lasting from 20 September 1378 to 11 November 1417,in which bishops residing in Rome and Avignon simultaneously claimed to be the true pope,and were eventually joined by a third line of Pisan claimants in 1409. The event was driven by international rivalries,personalities and political allegiances,with the Avignon Papacy in particular being closely tied to the French monarchy.
Vincent Ferrer,OP was a Valencian Dominican friar and preacher,who gained acclaim as a missionary and a logician. He is honored as a saint of the Catholic Church and other churches of Catholic traditions.
Medieval French literature is,for the purpose of this article,Medieval literature written in Oïl languages during the period from the eleventh century to the end of the fifteenth century.
Beatrice of Nazareth,also known as Beatrice of Tienen,was a Flemish Cistercian nun,visionary and mystic. Remembered chiefly through a medieval adaptation of her writings,of which the originals are now mostly lost,she is venerated as Blessed by the Catholic Church.
Colette of Corbie,PCC was a French abbess and the foundress of the Colettine Poor Clares,a reform branch of the Order of Saint Clare,better known as the Poor Clares. She is honored as a saint in the Catholic Church. Due to a number of miraculous events claimed during her life,she is venerated as a patron saint of women seeking to conceive,expectant mothers,and sick children.
A series of manuscript prophecies concerning the Papacy,under the title of Vaticinia de Summis Pontificibus,a Latin text which assembles portraits of popes and prophecies related to them,circulated from the late thirteenth-early fourteenth century,with prophecies concerning popes from Pope Nicholas III onwards.
The 1378 papal conclave which was held from April 7 to 9,1378,was the papal conclave which was the immediate cause of the Western Schism in the Catholic Church. The conclave was one of the shortest in the history of the Catholic Church. The conclave was also the first since 1159 held in the Vatican and in Old St. Peter's Basilica.
Robert of Geneva was elected to the papacy as Clement VII by the cardinals who opposed Pope Urban VI and was the first antipope residing in Avignon,France. His election led to the Western Schism.
Magistra Hersend,also called Hersend or Magistra Hersend Physica was a French female surgeon who accompanied King Louis IX of France on the Seventh Crusade in 1249. She is one of two women recorded as royal physician or surgeon.
Nicholas Watson is an English-Canadian medievalist,literary critic,religious historian,and author. He is Henry B. and Anne M. Cabot Professor of English at Harvard University and chair of the Harvard English Department.
Le livre du chemin de long estude is a first-person dream allegory by Christine de Pizan. Composed in 1402–03,it presents a critique of the moral state of the world and particularly France,lamenting the results of warfare.
Constance de Rabastens (13??–1386) was one of the female visionaries who concerned herself with politics in the late fourteenth century. Many visionaries emerged in the late fourteenth century who predicted the future of the Church. Visionaries often claimed that their visions came from God and that the Church should listen to what is being told. Unlike Catherine of Siena and Marie Robine,other visionaries of the Great Schism,Constance was denied any official recognition and Constance at one point she had to extract herself from an inquisitorial interrogation only with great difficulty. During the Great Schism there were multiple popes,the pope and the antipope,and Constance's denial of any official recognition was because she endorsed the "wrong" pope through her divinely inspired prophetic pronouncements. Little is known about Constance's life as her confessor,Raymond de Sabanac,decided not to write about her life and decided to only write about her visions. Although not much is known about Constance's life,there are documents about her visions and the letters she wrote to the inquisitor of Toulouse that are preserved in a Catalan translation in the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Most of Constance's visions were put together by her confessor,Raymond de Sabanac,but some series of visions were transmitted to Raymond by Constance's son.
Joëlle Rollo-Koster is a French medievalist working as a professor of medieval history at the University of Rhode Island.
Le Ditie de Jehanne d'Arc is a patriotic lyrical verse,and the last work of the medieval French poet Christine de Pizan,who lived from 1364 to about 1430 AD. Earlier in her career Pizan wrote many texts including The Book of the City of Ladies which included tales about famous woman in history. Christine de Pizan was a professional poet in the court of King Charles VI of France. In her last work "The Tale of Joan of Arc" Pizan writes 61 verses about Joan of Arc,who led the French army to reclaim territory being held by the English. It was written before Joan lost in battle and was taken as a prisoner and right before the death of Christine de Pizan herself.
Marie Robine,also known as Marie of Avignon or Marie the Gasque,was a French mystic who was active during the time of the Western Schism.