Héloïse, Abbess of the Convent of the Paraclete (1131–1164), is now famous to us as a brilliant writer of high twelfth-century Latin letters that probe matters of philosophy and ethics in considering human passion, the love of God, and the monastic lives of women. For long generations, she was subsumed into the story of the inventive scholar-philosopher Abelard and the shocking narrative of their love affair and their later marriage, followed by his punitive castration. That erotic story, with its vivid afterlives, persists as a cultural obsession, but in recent years Héloïse has emerged more fully not only as Abelard’s student and lover, but also as an incisive correspondent, skilled collaborator, brilliant theologian, and adept administrator of monastic estates.