Women of the Book: The Spiritual Lives of Early Modern Women, 1450-1800

In 2017 the Johns Hopkins Sheridan Libraries began building the world’s most comprehensive collection of rare books, manuscripts and ephemera detailing the experiences of early modern women from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment.

Though the voices of women were largely absent from traditional historical sources, the Women of the Book Collection turns that problem on its head through its focus on extremely rare or unique sources of evidence of the institution of female monasticism—the world of nuns and convents dedicated to enlivening, sharing and preserving the spiritual, intellectual and interior lives of women for the wider world, in manuscript and in print.

This exhibition of approximately 100 treasures drawn from the collection paints the world of these holy women in living color—from psycho-spiritual autobiographers, bilocating nuns, rock-star status saints, ecstatic mystics and female healers, to the hidden careers of women printers and engravers and miracle makers.

Please check our website prior to your visit as library hours may change.