Milena tells you the answer to the question "Could a female embroiderer's apprentice in the Middle Ages be literate?"

1. Literate Female Embroiderer's Apprentice in the Middle Ages

   (Outline for paper)

   By Milena Weide

   
   

   
   

   
   

          I.         Could a female embroiderer’s apprentice in the Middle Ages be literate?                                                                      

         II.         While it was not common for women to be literate, if you had the right circumstances a woman could be a literate and a skilled craftswoman, like an embroiderer.
   A. For example, there was a woman named Christine de Pisan who lived in the late 1300s and early 1400s. She wrote for a living. She is famous because this was very rare.
   B. Millions of uneducated people in Europe could not read.
   1. Books were very rare. They were generally found only in monastery libraries until 1200.
   A. Monks wrote the books by hand, and professional scribes and illuminators (people who decorated the first letter of a book like in a story book), began to get paid for writing books by the wealthy.
   C. Generally men were the literate people in Medieval culture because it was mostly boys who were going into a religious order where they were taught to read and write.
   1. However, girls who entered religious orders might also be taught to read and write, but this was less common.
   a. Girls were mostly taught how to run a household, instead of being sent to school.

        III.         Apprenticeship was rigidly enforced, being seen as the only acceptable path into a craft, and it took different periods of time according to the demands of the craft being learned.
   A. To start an apprenticeship the master was paid a large sum of money, and the apprentice took a ceremonial oath. The child was bound to work for his master by law.
   B. Masters and apprentices usually formed close bonds, probably because the masters had to care for their apprentices, providing them with food, clothes, and a place to live.
   C. Most of the day was spent in the workshop, hard work was expected from the apprentice, and if expectations were not met, the master could release their apprentice, and charge the apprentice’s family a fee.

      IV.         Embroidery guilds protected their ‘participants’ (masters and apprentices) from abuse, as well as set regulations, and prices.
   A. The cost of a piece depended on the cost of materials, and the cost of time, or labor.
   B. Usually the embroiderers themselves didn’t make the designs (for what was to be stitched), but were given the designs.
   b. If an apprentice came up with a new design, their master was allowed to steal it from them, and pretend that they had come up with it.

       V.         In 1386, a French priest wrote, “It is clear that man is much nobler than woman, and of greater virtue.”
   A. Men were often sent to get an education at a school, or as an apprentice, while the girls were kept at home. A girl’s parents were sometimes faced with the option to send their daughter to school, or to apprentice her, but it was less often that you would see an educated woman than to see an educated man in the Middle Ages.

      VI.         Until 1200, books were very rare. The books that existed were all hand written, and the monks that wrote them spent numerous hours in the “scriptorium” copying out religious texts. Books were mainly found in monastery libraries.

     VII.         In Medieval times the majority of schooling took place in monasteries, convents, and cathedrals. Children (mostly boys) got a basic education in reading, and writing. They also spent a lot of their time learning Bible passages, and prayers by heart. They weren’t allowed to talk to each other, and they got beaten with a birch rod when their attention wandered. The main source of schooling was the church.

    VIII.         Children, starting around the age of seven, were sent to school. They were mostly boys destined to the holy order.

      IX.         Literate people in the Middle Ages could join holy orders to write (religious texts), or write books themselves like Christine de Pisan.

       X.         Embroidery in the Middle Ages must have had some importance, because in a world revolving around survival, women spent a portion of their time embroidering.

      XI.         In Medieval times, almost all of the wealthy person's things had embroidery on them.
   A. In fact a lot of embroideries had a religious importance, sometimes depicting biblical scenes.
   B. There were even embroideries made to cover coffins!

     XII.         Almost anything could be embroidered on. In fact, they couldn’t print anything on cloth, so embroidery must have been like their version of that.

    XIII.         Embroidery had many household uses, or rather the cloth that was embroidered on had many household uses. It could be on a cover, a hat, a gown, or just on a decoration, and many more things.

   XIV.         Even though it was not common for women to be literate in the Middle Ages, some were, and it is possible that one of them was a skilled embroiderer. As apprenticeship was seen as the only acceptable route into a craft, such as embroidery, the skilled female embroiderer was most likely an apprentice at some point in time. So, for all we know, she was literate at the time that she was still an embroiderer’s apprentice. In conclusion, yes it was possible for a female embroiderer’s apprentice in the Middle Ages to be literate.