Summary Cambridge University Library, MS Additional 2604 contains a unique prose legendary almost entirely of female saints, all of whom are virgins, martyrs, or nuns. The manuscript, which also has varied post-medieval items, is written in one hand probably dating from c. 1480 to c. 1510. This previously unstudied Middle English collection features twenty-two universal and native saints, both common (like John the Baptist and thelthryth) and rare (such as Wihtburh and Domitilla). These texts are dependent on a complex mixture of Latin sources and analogues. Specific linguistic and art-historical features, as well as attention to the predominant female saints of Ely and post-medieval provenance, suggest an East Anglian convent for the original readership. Through an exploration of the manuscript and its later ownership (both recusant and antiquarian), a discussion of its linguistic attributes, a consideration of local female monastic and book history, a comparison of hagiographical texts, and a wide-ranging source and analogue study, this Study fully contextualises these Middle English lives. The book concludes with a survey of the structural and stylistic aspects of the texts, followed by three appendices, and an extensive bibliography. The texts are edited for the first time in its companion volume, Saints' Lives for Medieval English Nuns, II: An Edition of the 'Lyves and Dethes' in Cambridge University Library, MS Additional 2604. TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface I. The Manuscript II. Language and Dialectal Provenance III. Convent and Geographical Location IV. Hagiographical Context and the Selection of Saints V. Latin Sources and Analogues VI. Reading the ?Lyves and Dethes' Conclusion Appendix 1. Universal Latin Saints' Lives: Sources and Analogues Appendix 2. Latin and Middle English Versions of Athelthryth Appendix 3. Middle English Translations of John the Evangelist Bibliography Index