Featured Digital Projects

Mapping the Medieval Woman

"Medieval People" authors Tracy Chapman Hamilton and Mariah Proctor-Tiffany have launched their website Mapping the Medieval Woman, the subject of their article “Inscribing Her Presence: Digitally Mapping Women in Late Medieval Paris” in vol. 37 of the journal. This digital art history project synthesizes their research about women’s patronage in a clickable map. While much scholarship over the decades has focused on the impressive architectural patronage of men of all ranks, but particularly kings like Louis IX (1214-1270) and Charles V (1338-1380), women have often received less attention. This project seeks to focus attention on women’s monastic houses, artistic production, participation in urban rituals and their campaigns of patronage—building colleges, hospitals and rich residences. Women like Jeanne d’Evreux, Marie de Brabant, Jeanne de Bourgogne, and Clémence de Hongrie contributed to the character and urban fabric of medieval Paris.

The base map is the Plan de Bâle designed and printed by Truschet and Hoyau in Paris in 1550. Remarkably, when the authors went to georectify the map (stretch or shrink the historical map to match today’s latitude and longitude points) very little modification was necessary—a testament to the map makers’ ability. Enjoy scrolling in to see recognizable areas of Paris and to read about different sites associated with women, and if you’re in Paris, you can walk to sites identified by modern addresses in the entries. By mapping these sites, the many patrons, workers, residents and religious women come into view together. Medieval women’s spaces were highly visible in Paris in the Middle Ages, and Mapping the Medieval Woman highlights them for modern people. The authors invite other scholars to participate in the project by sending additional sites and sources through the website. The authors are grateful to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation for its support when the authors were fellows at the Art History and Digital Mapping Institute run by Paul Jaskot and Anne Knowles.