Les Dominicaines ou les paradoxes de l’Observance. Une approche historiographique

The historiography of the female Observance can be read as a progressive process of disappearance: female reformers Indeed are not quoted in the «officia» history of religious orders, although their action was of primary importance during the first period of the Observant reform. This disappearance is even more surprising for the case of the Dominican Order, whose reformers had assumed as their spiritual patron a woman, Catherine of Siena, canonized in 1461. Beginning with the study of some chronicles written during the Observant reform and following with the later historiography, this article tries to understand how the memory of the reforming action of religious women was almost cancelled, prior to its recent «reappearance» in historical studies, thanks to the gender studies. Many texts, especially those written by German-speaking religious women, the sisterbooks or schwesternbüchen, were rediscovered: their study has led to a reconsideration of the role played by religious women within reforming movements, until now considered as merely passive.