Medieval Women

Yesterday, we went (for the second time), to the Medieval Women exhibition at the British Library.  Productions by women.  Queens with significant power, visionaries, abbesses and anchorites.

Ii Included some particularly wonderful items - such as a letter with the signature of Jean d'Arc, and the single longform copy of The Book of Margery Kempe, as well as gorgeous illustrated versions of works by Christine de Pizan.

The team that organised the show were supported by a group of academics, including Professor Anthony Bale, who led the Birkbeck MA we at the Trees completed a while back, in Medieval Literature and Culture.  But looking at the Birkbeck site, it appears that the course is no more.  Which is sad.

However, Professor Bale is now at Cambridge, the Professor of Medieval and Renaissance Literature (1954).  This was the chair created for CS Lewis, and has included very noteworthy holders in the past (Helen Cooper and Jill Mann, to name but two).  So that, at least, is heartwarming.