Participant Info

First Name
Mercedes
Last Name
Pérez Vidal
Country
Spain
State
Affiliation
Autonomous University of Madrid //Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM)
Website URL
https://uam.academia.edu/MercedesPerezVidal
Keywords
women religious; art & liturgy; medieval monastic architecture; monastic libraries & book collections; material culture.
Availability
Media Contact
Additional Contact Information
PhD
PhD

Personal Info

Photo
About Me

I am an art and cultural historian with expertise in monastic architecture, gender studies and manuscripts. My research has focused on women’s convents, exploring the continuities between the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period, and the networks of cultural transfer between the Iberian Peninsula and other European and non-European territories. Within this general framework, my main research interests have been A. Interplay between art, architecture, gender & liturgy in female monasteries ( in Castile, Veneto, New Spain & Peru) B. The transfer of cultural practices between the Iberian Peninsula and other territories (European & the viceroyalties of New Spain & Peru). C. Libraries
and manuscript production in communities of religious women in Spain, Portugal, Italy and New Spain during the Late Middle Ages and the early modern period.

Recent Publications

Pérez Vidal, Mercedes (2025). “‘De linnage muit’ alt (…) e gran crerizía’. Gendered spaces, material culture and enclosure in Iberian female monasteries and beyond,”, in Within Walls: The Experience of Enclosure in Medieval and Early Modern Christian Female Spirituality, ed. by Julia Lewandowska and Araceli Rosillo-Luque (Women in Christianity 1), Turnhout, Brepols, 2025. pp. 215-238.

Pérez Vidal, Mercedes (2023). “Senhoras que cantan y no cantan caresciendo de la theorica y pratica». Musical theory and liturgical practice in the monastery of Lorvão.” Textus et música. Les números, 7. Performance des monodies médiévales. https://textus-et-musica.edel.univ-poitiers.fr/index.php?id=2898

Pérez Vidal Mercedes (2023) “Circulation of Books and Reform Ideas between Female Monasteries in Medieval Castile: From Twelfth Century Cistercians to the Observant Reform.” In Women and Monastic Reform in the Medieval West, c.1000-1500: Debating Identities, Creating Communities, edited by Julie Hotchin and Jirki Thibaut, 154-79. Boydell & Brewer. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781800109742.007 ISBN-13. 978-1837650491.

Pérez Vidal, Mercedes (2023) “Between Collective Memory and Individual Remembrance in Women’s Religious Communities.” In Medieval Women Religious, c.800-c.1500: New Perspectives, edited by Kimm Curran & Janet Burton, 202–20. Boydell & Brewer. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781800108981.014.

Pérez Vidal, Mercedes ed. (2022) Women Religious Crossing between Cloister and the World: Nunneries in Europe and the Americas, c.1200–c.1700, Arc Humanities Press, 2022, ISBN: 9781641892988. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781641892995

Pérez Vidal, Mercedes (2021) Arte y liturgia en los monasterios de Dominicas en Castilla. Desde los orígenes hasta la reforma observante (1218-1506), Gijón, Trea, ISBN: 978-84-18105-67-8.

Media Coverage
Country Focus
Portugal; Italy; Mexico
Expertise by Geography
Spain, Western Europe
Expertise by Chronology
Medieval, Pre-17th century, Early Modern
Expertise by Topic
Art & Architectural History, Book History, Gender, Libraries & Archives, Material Culture, Religion, Women