Engendering Erudition: Masculinity and Legal Authority at England's Medieval Inns of Court.

The enduring influence of the medieval Inns of Court on English common law culture is well attested. However, research has not previously examined the implications of their history as all‐male domestic, educational and professional establishments. This article uses textual, visual and spatial evidence to analyse the gendered culture of the Inns. It finds that through the Inns' homosocial practices and hierarchies, common law was engendered as a masculine form of knowledge and authority that was associated with a particular model of civic manhood. This gendered authority was then made socially legible through the embodied performances of lawyers in the public theatre of royal courtrooms.