Postcards from the Archives

Women's Literary Culture Before the Conquest

A Manuscript for Nuns: Cardiff, Central Library, MS 1.381

By Diane Watt, University of Surrey  Cardiff, Central Library, MS 1.381, fol.94r. Decorated initial marking the beginning of the lections for  St Hildelith (c) Diane Watt. In Cardiff, Central Library, MS 1.381, a life of the fifth-sixth century Breton saint Winwaloe, abbot of Landévennec (fols.1r-80v) is bound together with a collection of lives of the saints […]


The Vienna Boniface Codex and the Origins of English Women’s Literary History

Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna. Image copyright Diane Watt. Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Cod. Lat. Vindobonensis 751 (the Vienna Boniface Codex), which dates to the second half of the ninth century, is one of the most significant manuscripts in the history of English women’s literary history. Included within a collection of letters relating to St Boniface (672-754) and his […]


Conceiving Histories: Re-Materialising An Empty Archive

The Conceiving Histories Exhibition at the Peltz Gallery, Birkbeck, University of London is the culmination of an innovative collaboration between my fellow medievalist, Isabel Davis, and the visual artist, Anna Burel, which focuses on what they call ‘un-pregnancy’ or ‘pregnancy feigned, imagined, hidden and difficult to diagnose’. Artwork by Anna Burel   Walking in to […]


The Nurse’s Tale: Histories, Archives and Forgotten Women.

RAF personnel unloading baggage for a group of Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service at Cherbourg, having disembarked from the liner BIARRITZ, 16 September 1939. Eva McIntosh is in the centre of the photo, at the foot of the gangplank. By the War Office official photographer [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons. 21 July 2017 is the official […]


Double Standards: Who Owned The St Albans Psalter?

‘Psalm 105’, St Alban’s Psalter: Hildesheim, Dombibliothek, MS St Godehard 1, p.285 (public domain). In 2003, the St Albans Psalter (Hildesheim, Dombibliothek, MS St Godehard 1) was digitised and published online. The project was managed by Jane Geddes, and funded the Arts and Humanities Research Board and by Aberdeen University. This electronic publication marked a significant […]