Spielfrauen im Mittelalter, 2000, 130 p., 50 ill. -

In the Middle Ages, male and female minstrels were active in all social group as singers, dancers and instrumentalists. They organised festivities for all and were indispensable tools of powerful. Whereas the achievments of the usually travelling minstrels have been largely illuminated by the historical sciences, the female minstrel (ioculatrix, jongleresse) has been given scant attention up to now. This book focusses on the roles of female minstrels since antiquity and reveal the discrimination which they suffered. It also studies the living circumstances and operating methods of these ostracised women.