29 October 2024
Keeping a cat and other rules for anchoresses
Our exhibition Medieval Women: In Their Own Words highlights the stories of women across medieval society, from labourers and artisans to abbesses and queens. Some of the most unique experiences were had by anchoresses, religious women such as Julian of Norwich (d. after 1416), Christine Carpenter (fl. 1329-1332) and Margaret Kirkby (d. c. 1391-4), who chose to enclose themselves permanently in cells attached to churches. There they lived lives of prayer, contemplation and devotion to God.
Several surviving texts provide guidance to anchoresses about how to live their lives. One handbook, known as Ancrene Wisse, was composed in the first decades of the 13th century, supposedly for three sisters who had chosen to enter the contemplative life. One of the earliest and most important surviving manuscripts of this text (Cotton MS Cleopatra C VI) is on display in the exhibition. The Middle English work not only offers anchoresses spiritual advice, but also practical instructions about all aspects of their daily routine, outlining the rules they are expected to observe, from their food and drink to their clothes and possessions, and even the pets they could own.
The earliest surviving manuscript of Ancrene Wisse; England, c. 1225-1230: Cotton MS Cleopatra C VI, f. 193r
Here is a selection of these rules that give a taste of what life as an anchoress might have looked like:
Life in the Anchorhold
- An anchoress’s cell should only have three windows: a church window, that provides a view into the church to see the Eucharist, a house window, to allow for food and other goods to be brought in, and a parlour window for dealing with the outside world. These windows should be as small as possible, and closed when not in use.
- Anchoresses are not allowed to preach and can only offer advice to women. They are also not allowed to criticise men for their vices, the exception being ‘holy old anchoresses’ who may do it in a certain way (the text does not elaborate).
- Anchoresses should not curse or swear.
- Anchoresses must not become teachers or turn the anchorhold into a school.
- They should neither send letters, nor receive letters, nor write without leave.
- Anchoresses are allowed maidservants – Julian of Norwich is known to have had two, called Sarah and Alice – but they have to observe strict rules.
The enclosure of an anchoress by a bishop; London, 15th century: Lansdowne MS 451, f. 76v
Diet, Sleep and Hygiene
- Anchoresses must not use meat or fat in their meals but instead observe a diet of vegetable stew and be accustomed to drink very little.
- Eating with guests outside the anchorhold is not allowed, and men are barred from eating in the anchoress’s presence.
- Anchoresses and their maidservants should not eat or snack outside of mealtimes.
- No one else is allowed to sleep in the anchoress’s home, and anchoresses must only sleep in their beds.
- Washing is encouraged! Anchoresses can wash themselves and their things as often as they like.
- Anchoresses must have their hair cut, shaved or trimmed four times a year.
- Bloodletting is permitted (a common medieval medical treatment), but the guide warns that afterwards, the anchoress should do nothing strenuous for three days and pass the time with her servants, sharing ‘theawfule talen’ (virtuous stories) together.
- When unwell, anchoresses should not take remedies advised by ‘uncundelich lechecreft’ (unnatural healing), in case they make things worse.
Clothing
- Clothing should be plain, warm and well-made.
- A covering should be worn upon the head, either a wimple or a simple cap.
- In winter, an anchoress’s shoes should be soft, large, and warm, while in summer, light shoes can be worn, or there is the option to walk barefoot.
- Anchoresses should not own rings, brooches, patterned belts and gloves or any other kind of adornments.
The only animal an anchoress was allowed to keep was a cat: Add MS 42130, f. 190r
Manual Work and Possessions
- Anchoresses should not conduct business. An anchoress who is fond of bargaining ‘chepeth hire sawle the chap-mon of helle’ (sells her soul to the peddler of Hell).
- They should not make embroidered items like purses, caps, silk bandages or lace as a means of making friends. If they want to sew, they can make church vestments or mend clothes for the poor.
- Anchoresses can receive gifts from ‘good people’, but they should not take anything from those they do not trust. Examples of untrustworthy people include those with ‘fol semblant’ (foolish pretences) or ‘wake wordes’ (idle chatter).
- Anchoresses are not allowed to look after other people’s possessions, including clothes, boxes, charters or tally sticks, indentures, church vestments and chalices.
- No pets allowed! Anchoresses are told ‘ne schule ye habben nan beast bute cat ane’ (you should not keep any animals, except a single cat), so they do not invest too much thought on their welfare. If an anchoress must have an animal, then it should not bother or harm anyone and she should not think too much about it, as an ‘ancre ne ah to habben na thing thet ut-ward drahe hire heorte’ (‘an anchoress should not have anything which draws away her heart’).
Ancrene Wisse was one of the more popular medieval anchoritic handbooks – at least 17 manuscripts of the text survive, with translations in Middle English, Anglo-Norman French and Latin – but whether these rules represented a reality for all anchoresses is difficult to judge. There may have been other advisory texts available to guide them, some less stringent than others. One can also imagine the individual relationships anchoresses had with their communities meant that a life of restriction and near-total seclusion was harder to adhere to. Nonetheless, the rules Ancrene Wisse sets out give us a sense of what these women were knowingly committing to when then entered the contemplative life.
An anchoress inside her anchorhold; London, c. 1400-1410: Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 079, f. 96r
To learn more about the lives of anchoresses, visit our major exhibition Medieval Women: In Their Own Words, which runs from 25 October 2024 until 2 March 2025, at St Pancras in London. Tickets are available to order now!
This exhibition is made possible with support from Joanna and Graham Barker, Unwin Charitable Trust, and Cockayne – Grants for the Arts: a donor advised fund held at the London Community Foundation.
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25 October 2024
Medieval Women well and truly open
Fanfare, please! We are thrilled to say that the British Library's major new exhibition, Medieval Women: In Their Own Words, is now open to the public. The first ticket-holders are starting to go through the doors, and we hope thousands more will follow them in the coming months.
It's about time, we think, that medieval women took the spotlight. Margery Kempe (died in 1438) wrote the first autobiography in the English language. Her contemporary, Joan of Arc (burned in 1431), led armies to victory in a male-dominated world. Marta, an enslaved Russian woman, was sold in the marketplace in Venice in 1450. Shajar al-Durr (died in 1257) was the first woman to rule in Mamluk Egypt. Margery Brews wrote the first Valentine letter in 1477. Sibylle of Flanders (died in 1163) refused to return home with her husband from Jerusalem. Margaret of Anjou (died in 1482) owned a pet Barbary lion. Gwerful Mechain (lived in the late 1400s) wrote explicit poetry. Joan Astley asked Henry VI for a pay rise in 1423/4. Margaret, Maid of Norway (died in 1290), aged just seven, was to be betrothed to an English prince. Estellina Conat was the first woman to print a book in Hebrew, in 1474. Margaret Starre took part in the Peasants' Revolt in 1381. Joan of Beverley embroidered an altar band in the 14th century.
Our exhibition features an incredible range of manuscripts, documents and early printed books from the Library's collections, alongside some amazing loans from other institutions. Medieval Women is the culmination of many months' hard work behind the scenes, by colleagues in our Exhibitions, Loans, Conservation, Marketing, Press, Publishing, Events, Learning, Commercial and Visitor Services teams — not to mention the curators (Ellie, Julian, Calum) and our other colleagues. We hope you have the chance to visit our exhibition in person, to attend one of the events, or to buy the book. We like to think that the medieval women whose stories we tell would have been delighted to make your acquaintance.
This exhibition is made possible with support from Joanna and Graham Barker, Unwin Charitable Trust, and Cockayne – Grants for the Arts: a donor advised fund held at the London Community Foundation.
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19 October 2024
Countdown to Medieval Women
Our major new exhibition, Medieval Women: In Their Own Words, opens on 25 October 2024. In hot anticipation, here are some ways you can get involved, and a sneak preview of the gallery to whet your appetite.
Tickets can be purchased in advance here or in person at the British Library, with a large range of concessions available.
The exhibition book, Medieval Women: Voices and Visions, edited by Eleanor Jackson & Julian Harrison, with a foreword by Kate Mosse, can be ordered in advance from the British Library Shop. The perfect birthday or Christmas present! Maybe we can even tempt you to buy our Medieval Women Christmas jumper.
We have an exciting programme of events, starting with Kate Mosse, Here and Now: Meet the Medieval Women, on 29 October (in person and online).
Meanwhile, our Learning team has organised school workshops and tours, and you can find more information about them here.
Medieval Women: In Their Own Words runs from 25 October 2024 until 2 March 2025, at St Pancras in London. We'd be delighted to see you there, as we uncover the stories of women from the past, from across Europe, and from all walks of life.
This exhibition is made possible with support from Joanna and Graham Barker, Unwin Charitable Trust, and Cockayne – Grants for the Arts: a donor advised fund held at the London Community Foundation.
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17 October 2024
Maidens or monsters?
During the Middle Ages, some of the most popular and well-loved stories were about classical women, female saints and heroines of courtly romance. In a new British Library publication, Maidens or Monsters? Tales of Amazons, Goddesses, Queens & Temptresses in Medieval Manuscripts, Chantry Westwell delves into the stories of these women, exploring their portrayal by medieval authors and illuminators.
The book is divided into six sections dedicated to female warriors and murderesses, women of virtue and faith, power, and tragedy, as well as enigmatic and allegorical women taken from myth and legend. Their accounts are accompanied by some of the most exquisite examples of medieval art, reproduced from within the pages of manuscripts from the eighth to the 16th centuries, mostly from the British Library’s collections.
The six sections are as follows:
I: Warriors, Murderesses and Femmes Fatales
The first section of the book features stories of the legendary Amazon Women led by their Queen Penthesilea, the Colchian witch Medea, who takes her revenge on the Greek hero Jason, Minerva, goddess of war and Salome, who danced for Herod, then asked for the head of John the Baptist on a platter.
Queen Penthesilea leads the Amazon Women into battle, from Christine de Pizan’s ‘Book of the Queen’ (Paris, c. 1410-c. 1414): Harley MS 4431/1, f. 103v
II: Holy Women
The second section focuses on the lives and stories of holy women, from Mary Magdalene and St Margaret of Antioch, who emerges from a dragon’s belly to St Helena, mother of Constantine the Great and a remarkable group of desert saints known as the Holy Harlots.
St Mary of Egypt is handed a cloak by St Zosima, from in the Theodore Psalter (Constantinople, 1066): Add MS 19352, f. 68r.
III: Powerful Women
Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, Olympias of Macedon, and Candace of Ethiopia are among those featured in this section dedicated to women who wielded real power in their lifetimes but were not always treated fairly by historians and chroniclers, who tended to portray them as manipulative temptresses rather than as skilful politicians or rulers.
The Egyptian Nectanebo disguised as a serpent seducing Olympias, in the Roman d’Alexandre en prose (‘Prose Alexander Romance’), from the Talbot Shrewsbury Book (Rouen, c. 1445): Royal MS 15 E VI, f. 6r
IV: Tragic Heroines
This section looks at women whose stories ended in great tragedy: from the romantic heroine Elvide and the classical Lucretia who both die for their honour, to the Persian Shirin who takes her own life on her husband’s grave, and the story of the Biblical Eve, blamed for the downfall of humanity, exiled from paradise, before experiencing terrible family tragedy.
The suicide of Shirin at Khusraw’s tomb, in Nizami, Khamsah (India, 1595): Or 12208, f. 102r
V: Partners and Lovers
The women in the fifth section of the book were all partners of famous men, but nonetheless captured the limelight in their stories. Among them are Camelot’s Guinevere and the legendary Helen of Troy, as well as the Old Testament Delilah, Dante’s Beatrice from the Divine Comedy and Humayun, the Chinese princess of Persian folklore.
Beatrice showing Dante the orders of angels and saints in Dante, Paradiso (Tuscany, c. 1445): Yates Thompson MS 36, f. 180r
VI: Mystical, Magical and Allegorical Women
The final section looks at the stories of mystical and magical women, from the fairy Melusine, who transforms into a fish, to the mermaids, who lured sailors from their ships, and the divine Sibyls, known for their prophecies, along with other fantastical female characters.
Two Sirens swim beside a ship with sailors who are under their spell, from the Queen Mary Psalter (London, c. 1315): Royal MS 2 B VII, f. 96v
It becomes clear when reading these tales that women were not always treated fairly or in a positive light by medieval historians and storytellers, most of whom were, of course, men. A counter to this was Christine de Pizan (b. 1364, d. c. 1430), a professional author based at the French royal court during the 14th and early 15th centuries, who argued forcefully in her writings for the intellectual and moral equality of women. Her Book of the City of Ladies was an impassioned defence of women, in which she recounted the stories of these heroines, and imagined herself building a metaphorical city from their achievements. It was Christine who provided the inspiration for this book.
The goddess Venus presiding over her courtiers, who give her their hearts, from Christine de Pizan’s ‘Book of the Queen’ (Paris, c. 1410-c. 1414): Harley MS 4431/1, f. 100r
Maidens or Monsters? Amazons and Goddesses, Queens and Temptresses in Medieval Legend is available to order now from the British Library Shop.
Chantry Westwell
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03 October 2024
Our first 1000 digitised manuscripts return
Following the cyber-attack on the British Library last year, staff have been working behind the scenes to restore access to the Library’s digitised manuscripts. The Library has now made an initial batch of 1,000 digitised items available online, of which over 600 are ancient, medieval and early modern manuscripts.
A full list of the items, with links to their digitised images and summary catalogue information, can be consulted on the British Library website. Improvements to the discoverability of the manuscripts will be made in due course.
The page for Easter Sunday in the Sherborne Missal: Add MS 74236, p. 216
A highlight is the Sherborne Missal (Add MS 74236), a service book containing all the texts required for celebrating Mass on the different feasts, holidays and saints’ days throughout the year. Made for the Benedictine abbey of St Mary in Sherborne, Dorset, the manuscript has been called one of the masterpieces of 15th-century English illumination, with decoration on nearly all of its 694 pages. You can read more about the manuscript in our previous blogpost and listen to a guided tour and discussion of the page for Easter Sunday as part of the BBC’s Moving Picture Series.
A phoenix rising from the ashes, from an illuminated Bestiary: Harley MS 4751, f. 65r
The selection also includes all 400 manuscripts digitised as part of The Polonsky Foundation England and France Project, a ground-breaking collaborative project between the British Library and the Bibliothèque nationale de France. The manuscripts, made in England and France between the years 700 to 1200, comprise a wide range of texts and topics, including biblical, liturgical and theological works, science, music and medicine, Classical and contemporary literature and works on history and law. Among them are a lavishly-illuminated Bestiary (Harley MS 4751), with illustrated accounts of birds, beasts and fantastical creatures, and the Eadui Psalter (Arundel MS 155), a copy of the Book of Psalms, written by a scribe called Eadui Basan at Christ Church, Canterbury in the early 11th century, with a partial gloss in Old English.
The Beatus page of the Eadui Psalter, showing the opening of Psalm 1: Arundel MS 155, f. 12r
There are also a number of manuscripts containing significant works of Middle English literature. They include the ‘Amherst Manuscript’ (Add MS 37790), a Carthusian anthology of theological material containing the only surviving medieval copy of the Short Text of The Revelations of Divine Love by the anchoress Julian of Norwich. This work is an account of the 16 mystical visions Julian experienced in her early 30s, and the earliest surviving example of a book in the English language known to have been written by a woman.
The Short Text of Julian of Norwich’s Revelations of Divine Love: Add MS 37790, f. 98v
As further digitised manuscripts become available online, we will post updates about them on the Medieval Manuscripts blog. Browse a list of all currently available digitised manuscripts here.
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25 September 2024
Medieval Women: 1 Month to Go!
There’s only one month to go before our major exhibition Medieval Women: In Their Own Words opens. Running from 25 October 2024 to 2 March 2025, this exhibition tells the history of medieval women through their own words and uncovers their lives through manuscripts, documents and precious artefacts. Tickets for the exhibition are already on sale!
As opening day approaches, we thought we would reveal a few more of the incredible items that are going to be on display.
The Psalter of Melisende, Queen of Jerusalem
The Presentation in the Temple, from the ‘Melisende Psalter’; Jerusalem, 1131–43: Egerton MS 1139, f. 3r
From Margaret of Anjou to Empress Matilda, you will hear the stories of many medieval queens, their lives, words and achievements in the course of the exhibition. They include Melisende (d. 1161), ruler of the Crusader state of Jerusalem in the mid-12th-century. Jointly reigning with her husband, Fulk of Anjou, and then her son Baldwin III, Melisende was responsible for much of the kingdom’s day-to-day governance. She was also a renowned patron of the Church and the arts, founding schools devoted to bookmaking and miniature painting. A precious survival from her reign is her Psalter (Book of Psalms), a personal prayer-book that was probably commissioned for her and features exquisite illuminations and writing in gold.
Birth Girdle
Medieval birth girdle, featuring the Three Nails from the Crucifixion, illustrations of Christ’s Side Wound, and other textual and image-based talismans; England, 15th century: Harley Roll T 11
A life-size representation of Christ’s Side Wound, from a medieval English birth girdle: Harley Roll T 11
Among the exhibits devoted to the subject of women’s health is one of only nine surviving medieval English birth girdles. These parchment waist belts were produced commercially as amulets, offering protection against a number of different hazards and ailments, but particularly childbirth. This 15th-century birth girdle is covered with a variety of prayers, charms and other textual and illustrative talismans, including an image of the three nails used during the Crucifixion and a life-sized representation (‘measure’) of Christ’s side-wound.
Hildegard of Bingen’s Ordo Virtutum
Hildegard of Bingen’s proto-opera, Ordo virtutum (‘Play of the Virtues’); Sponheim, 1487: Add MS 15102, f. 219v
The exhibition will also introduce a number of women who embraced a spiritual calling and found purpose as part of religious communities. A foremost example is Hildegard of Bingen (d. 1179). Sent to live in the Benedictine nunnery of Disibodenberg in Germany when she was 8 years old, Hildegard later founded and became abbess of the nunnery of Rupertsberg. In the course of her life, Hildegard had many achievements and roles. She was a polymath, a visionary and prophet, who went on multiple extended preaching tours, even in her 60s and 70s; she was also an author, a prolific letter-writer, and the beloved leader of her religious community. One of her many compositions is a musical play, or proto-opera, the Ordo virtutum (Play of the Virtues), which tells the story of the struggle for a human soul between personifications of the virtues and the Devil, and was intended to be sung by nuns.
The Luttrell Psalter
Female labourers bringing in the harvest and reaping barley with sickles, from the ‘Luttrell Psalter’; Lincolnshire, 1325–40: Add MS 42130, f. 172v
The exhibition will also highlight the variety of working roles women played at all levels of medieval society, from rural communities to royal courts. The Luttrell Psalter is one of the masterpieces of medieval English art, an illuminated copy of the Book of Psalms commissioned by the landowner Sir Geoffrey Luttrell (d. 1345), lord of Irnham in Lincolnshire. Its marginal illustrations are known for their fantastical menagerie of hybrid creatures and grotesques, but they also include depictions of arable farming and labourers, artisans, and craftspeople at work, many featuring women prominently. On this page, three female farmworkers reap and gather barley with sickles. In the background, one of the labourers stands and stretches to ease her aching back, her sickle balanced on her shoulder.
The Lais and Fables of Marie de France
An opening from Marie’s ‘Bisclavret’, the story of a werewolf trapped in lupine form, from a collection of her Fables and Lais; England, 13th century: Harley MS 978, ff. 66v–67r.
Alongside Christine de Pizan’s ‘Book of the Queen’ and The Book of Margery Kempe, one of the exhibition’s most important literary manuscripts contains the work of Marie de France (active around the 1180s), one of the first recorded female authors in Europe. Few details of Marie’s identity are now known to us, though she was probably based in England, since she wrote in Anglo-Norman, a dialect of French spoken by the ruling class in England after the Norman Conquest. This manuscript is the only medieval copy to record all twelve of Marie’s Lais, a set of narrative poems notable for their celebration of courtly love, and featuring such memorable characters as the werewolf Bisclavret, the abandoned girl Le Fresne, and the knights Milun, Guigemar and Lanval.
Marie ai nun, si sui de France (Marie is my name and I am from France): Marie naming herself at the end of the lai ‘Bisclavret’; Harley MS 978, f. 67r
Medieval Women: In Their Own Words is on show at the British Library from 25 October 2024 to 2 March 2025. You can pre-book your tickets online now.
This exhibition is made possible with support from Joanna and Graham Barker, Unwin Charitable Trust, and Cockayne – Grants for the Arts: a donor advised fund held at the London Community Foundation.
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18 July 2024
Tickets go on sale for Medieval Women exhibition
Tickets are now on sale for the British Library’s major exhibition Medieval Women: In Their Own Words, which runs from 25 October 2024 to 2 March 2025.
From the courage of Joan of Arc at her trial for heresy, and the visionary experiences of Julian of Norwich, to the artistry of the London silkwoman Alice Claver, the work of female medical practitioners, and the struggles of female rulers like Queen Melisende of Jerusalem, this exhibition explores the challenges, achievements and daily lives of women in Europe from 1100 to 1500. It will tell the history of medieval women through their own words and uncover their lives through manuscripts, documents and artefacts.
To whet your appetite before the exhibition opens in October, here are a few of the incredible items that will be on display:
The Book of Margery Kempe
The opening of the only surviving manuscript of The Book of Margery Kempe; Norfolk, c. 1445–1450: Add MS 61823, f. 1r
The earliest autobiography written in English, The Book of Margery Kempe is an extraordinary account of the experiences of a female mystic, her spiritual visions, pilgrimages to Rome, Jerusalem and Santiago de Compostela, and her struggles for recognition in a male-dominated religious world. Margery’s Book was lost for centuries until this copy was discovered in a country house in 1934.
Christine de Pizan’s ‘Book of the Queen’
Christine de Pizan building the ‘City of Ladies’, from ‘The Book of the Queen’; Paris, c. 1410-1414: Harley MS 4431/2, f. 290r
The ‘Book of the Queen’ is the largest and most splendid manuscript of the works of Christine de Pizan, made for Isabeau of Bavaria (d. 1435), queen of France. Christine is often described as the first professional woman author in medieval Europe. Her Book of the City of Ladies recounts tales of exemplary historical, legendary and biblical women, building a metaphorical ‘city’ out of women’s achievements.
The Paston Letters
Letter from Margaret Paston to John Paston I, asking him to send her a new girdle and cloth for a gown; Norfolk, December 1441: Add MS 43490, f. 34r
The Pastons were a Norfolk family who climbed the social ladder from peasantry to landed gentry during the 15th century. They left behind a cache of around a thousand personal letters, giving unparalleled insight into their everyday lives. The women of the family are some of the most prolific correspondents, recording their joys, sorrows, loves, rivalries, friendships and arguments that span several generations.
The Sekenesse of Wymmen
Anatomical drawings featured in a section on childbirth, from The Sekenesse of Wymmen; England, 15th century: Sloane MS 2463, f. 17v
One of a number of items in the exhibition devoted to women’s health, this manuscript contains the Sekenesse of Wymmen, a widel- read gynaecological treatise. It features instructions to a midwife on how to assist a mother during complications in childbirth, with accompanying anatomical drawings showing the position of the baby in the womb.
The Foundation Charter of Bordesley Abbey
The foundation charter of Bordesley Abbey by Empress Matilda; Devizes, 1141–1142: Add Ch 75724
The foundation charter of Bordesley Abbey was made in the 1140s, a period of strife in England as a bitter civil war raged between Matilda and Stephen, rival claimants to the throne after the death of Henry I. This document styles Matilda as ‘Empress’ and ‘Lady of the English’ and features her seal, showing her crowned and holding a sceptre, enclosed within a distinctive silk seal bag.
The seal of Matilda: Devizes, 1141-1142: Add Ch 75724
Medieval Women: In Their Own Words is on show at the British Library from 25 October 2024 to 2 March 2025. You can pre-book your tickets online now.
This exhibition is made possible with support from Joanna and Graham Barker, Unwin Charitable Trust, and Cockayne – Grants for the Arts: a donor advised fund held at the London Community Foundation.
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04 July 2024
New acquisition: an illuminated charter of Edward III
It's not every day that the British Library acquires a previously unrecorded charter. And this one is something special. It is an example of an illuminated charter, which make up around 0.1% of the total survivals, and it bears an excellent impression of the Great Seal of England. The Library purchased the charter at auction at Bonham's on 20 June 2024 (lot 71), and it has been accessioned as Add Ch 77743. Once it has been catalogued and undergone minor conservation treatment, it will be made available to researchers in our Manuscripts Reading Room at St Pancras. We are extremely grateful to the British Library Collections Trust for generously supporting this acquisition.
A royal licence issued in the name of King Edward III of England (reigned 1327–1377) at Westminster: Add Ch 77743
The charter itself is a royal licence issued at Westminster on 15 November 1368, and is addressed to David de Wollore, one of the king's chancery clerks. It grants property to David in Ripon (Yorkshire), which would enable him to support a chaplain to perform divine service every day at the altar of St Andrew in the church there. The document opens with a decorated initial showing a cleric addressing his congregation, and in the upper margin there is a drawing of David firing a slingshot at Goliath in the opposite corner. We are aware of two other surviving decorated charters of Edward III, both in French collections, but neither of which is as extensively illuminated as this. The Great Seal is that of the so-called Seventh Seal of Edward III, used between 1360 and 1377, and is attached to the document on two plaited cords. One side shows the king on horseback, and on the other sitting on the throne. The unusual decoration of the document may point to its recipient being the Keeper of the Rolls, who was entrusted with applying the Great Seal to royal grants.
We are very pleased to be able to add this document to the national collection, where it can be consulted alongside thousands of other medieval charters, including a number of royal grants. Many questions remain to be answered about the circumstances of this charter's production and its artist, including the identity of the cleric in the opening initial — there is much more to be learned about it. Add Ch 77743 has been acquired with the assistance of the British Library Collections Trust.
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Medieval manuscripts blog recent posts
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- Medieval Women manuscripts now online
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