This book presents a study and a first modern text edition of the lives of women cross-dressers
in the late Middle English Vitas Patrum translated by William Caxton printed by Wynkyn de
Worde in 1495. The text edition is accompanied by a critical commentary glossary and indices.
The main study provides an extensive analysis of the motif of cross-dressing in the lives. A
constellation of questions is addressed: why do the women take up the male disguise? What were
the Church's and medieval theologians' views on pretending to be a member of the opposite sex?
Can as has often been argued by feminist scholars these cross-dressing women saints be seen
as early feminists? Two further studies give insights into the prospective reading public of
the 1495 edition and the woodcut illustrations appended to the vitae.
