The not so Poor Clares of Cologne

The always interesting British Library Medieval manuscript blog has continued its series on items included in their current Medieval Women exhibition with a particularly informative and attractive post about the surviving part of a liturgical manuscript from a house of Franciscan nuns in Cologne. These sisters belonged, as the article explains, to the group often known as Urbanists. They followed a mitigated version of the Franciscan rule which was granted to them by Pope Urban IV in the mid-thirteenth century. This attracted women from wealthy backgrounds and enabled them to retain some of their wealth rather than following the Franciscan model of a rule of absolute poverty. In the case of these Sisters from Cologne they put their inherited money into creating lavish liturgical manuscripts.

The beautifully illustrated blog post can be seen at An unknown leaf from the Poor Clares of Cologne