The question framed by the title of this essay is ostensibly a simple one: how did middle age affect women’s roles as commissioners, owners and readers of books? If they were married, and had survived the rigours and dangers of childbearing, did their interest in the sphere of cultural activities develop as they grew older, and were they able to achieve a degree of autonomy in pursuit of them? If they did, to what extent was this dependent on their marital and financial positions, or on their class status? Before it is possible even to consider these questions another is raised, for it is not even immediately evident what age group we should be examining: what becomes clear from life-cycle studies, innovative and informative as many of them are, is the lacuna where middle age should be. Other stages of life – the menarche, age at marriage, widowhood and old age – have all been subjected to scrutiny, but it is as though women pass through a barrier of invisibility when they enter middle age. There is, though, a medieval text which deals explicitly with women’s ageing, the Cause et Cure, generally attributed to the abbess and visionary Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179); this work tackles all aspects of women’s sexuality and reproductive cycles with judicious specificity:

The approximate age of fifty for the menopause is not dissimilar to today, but it must be borne in mind that Hildegard (if she was indeed the author of this text) was writing from within the confines of a secluded group of women whose diet, if not luxurious, was consistent, and allowance should therefore be made amongst the general population for the effects of poverty, poor diet, illness and shorter lifespan. For the purposes of this study, however, if ten years either side of fifty is allowed, a working schema of the ages of forty to sixty can be used to establish a timeframe for looking at the middle-aged woman and the book.