ENGLISH CONVENTS IN EXILE 1600-1800. Five (of Six) Volumes (V.1 - V.5) of this important work on Edited by Caroline Bowden, et al.

LONDON: Pickering & Chatto, 2012-2013. First Edition.

Five (of Six) Hardcover Books, matching set, 6x9 inches. Each volume focuses on a different part of the life, culture, and works (written and otherwise) that took place in the English Convents, and the life of the Nuns that lived in them and ran them in exile. Each volume stands on its own.

The five books are:

PART 1: Volume 1 - History Writing / edited by Caroline Bowden, 322 pages; Volume 2 - Spirituality / edited by Laurence Lux-Sterritt, 532 pages; Volume 3 - Life Writing I / edited by Nicky Hallett, 411 pages.

PART 2: volume 4 - Life Writing II / edited by Katrien Daemen-de-Gelder, 338 pages; Volume 5 - Convent Management / edited by James E. Kelly, contributing editors Caroline Bowden, Richard G. Williams, 477 pages. (LACKING Volume 6 - The Convents and the Outside World / edited by Carmen M. Mangion.)

NEAR FINE condition: there is a light corner tip bump to the covers of two of the books (hardly noticeable), otherwise all is pristine, tight, bright, clean and unmarked. A lovely, very presentable set of these important works on English Convents (i.e. English Religious Women) in Exile.

From the Publisher:

******In 1598, the first English convent was established in Brussels and was to be followed by a further 21 enclosed convents across Flanders and France with more than 4,000 women entering them over a 200 year period. In theory they were cut off from the outside world; however, in practice the nuns were not isolated and their contacts and networks spread widely, and their communal culture was sophisticated. Not only were the nuns influenced by continental intellectual culture but they in turn contributed to a developing English Catholic identity moulded by their experience in exile. During this time, these nuns and the Mary Ward sisters found outlets for female expression often unavailable to their secular counterparts, until the French Revolution and its associated violence forced the convents back to England. This interdisciplinary collection demonstrates the cultural importance of the English convents in exile from 1600 to 1800 and is the first collection to focus solely on the English convents.******

The 2012 Hardcover First Editions of this work are hard-to-find. When they can be found the books are often offered individually at quite high prices.