Dreaming of the Women’s Middle Ages

Abstract

Svetlana Tomin. Knjigoljubive žene srpskog srednjeg veka (second, revised and expanded edition). Novi Sad: Akademska knjiga, 2025. 206 pp.

ISBN- 978-86-6263-597-6

The second edition of Book-Loving Women of the Serbian Middle Ages by Svetlana Tomin offers a comprehensive account of both prominent and lesser-known medieval women, now expanded with new insights and recent findings from Serbian and international medieval studies, as well as updated with relevant literature published in the meantime. Challenging the prevailing assumption that women in the Middle Ages occupied a marginal position in society, Tomin’s study reveals their active engagement in cultural and intellectual life: not only did they read and write books, but they also commissioned, purchased, and donated them.