OMMG welcomes Emma J. Nelson (Chetham’s Library, Manchester) and Elliot Cobb (Independent Scholar) who will present their latest research at our Graduate Research Forum.

‘No take-backsies? Gerald of Wales and the boundaries of book donation’ | Emma J. Nelson

The second half of the twelfth century witnessed a major shift in the history of medieval libraries, as individual donation came to replace communal acquisition as the dominant mode of library growth. This development can be characterised as a shift from a monastic to a secular-clerical model of library growth, and book donation represented just one aspect of a multi-faceted pattern of patronage by the twelfth-century secular clergy. Such donations were underpinned by contemporary thought on gift-giving, which emphasised that gifts ought to be given freely and open-handedly, but in practice, donation could be more complicated. This paper explores the donations made by the author Gerald of Wales to various religious institutions and individuals with the aim of furthering his goals. Gerald’s discussions of his donations reveal how he conformed to, co-opted and transgressed twelfth-century models of donation, and provide the starting point for an examination of these models’ boundaries. Such an examination connects approaches to patronage and publication, textual dissemination and reception, and the suitability of certain genres as subjects of clerical writing and their appropriateness for inclusion in secular-clerical libraries.

‘Miraculous and Marginal Women in the Metz Psalter-Hours’ | Elliot Cobb

Throughout the margins and historiated initials of a late thirteenth-century personal prayerbook, a remarkable variety of women are depicted. The richly illuminated Metz Psalter-Hours contains images of women praying with devotional aids including rosaries and books; women sporting floral garlands and golden crowns; and female saints miraculously victorious over evildoers. This paper interrogates how word and image functioned concurrently in late medieval prayerbooks to construct a gendered devotional experience specific to the recipient – in this case, a wealthy lay woman living in northeastern France. I question how the use of different zones of the mise-en-page mediates the meanings of the varying images, and how gendered themes come to a head in the Hours of the Virgin through a fascinating depiction of the book owner kneeling before the Virgin and Child. Unusually, she is offered a golden crown by the Christ-Child. Furthermore, I draw attention to the exceptionally high number of lay women portrayed using books, situating this as yet understudied manuscript within ongoing topical discussions surrounding the role of medieval owner portraits in prayerbooks.

The Graduate Research Forum is open to the public.