Lady Mary Wellesley

Last updated
Lady Mary Wellesley
Born
Mary Luise Wellesley

(1986-12-16) 16 December 1986 (age 37)
Education Lincoln College, Oxford
University College, London
OccupationHistorian
Parent(s) Charles Wellesley, 9th Duke of Wellington
Princess Antonia of Prussia

Lady Mary Luise Wellesley (born 16 December 1986) is a British writer and historian specialising in Medieval studies. She has authored two books, Hidden Hands: The Lives of Manuscripts and Their Makers and The Gilded Page: The Secret Lives of Medieval Manuscripts.

Contents

Early life, family, and education

Lady Mary Wellesley was born in 1986 to Charles Wellesley, Marquess of Douro and Princess Antonia of Prussia. [1] Her godmother was Diana, Princess of Wales. [1] She studied English language and literature at Lincoln College, Oxford and obtained a doctorate from University College, London in 2017. [2] [3]

Career

Wellesley is an associate fellow at the University of London's Institute of Historical Research and an associate member of the English faculty at Oxford University. [2] [3]

As a medievalist, she has studied and written about England during the 15th century. [4] [5] Wellesley has also written about Francis of Assisi and people of the Victorian period, including Thomas Hardy. [6] [7]

In 2023, Wellesley authored two books, Hidden Hands: The Lives of Manuscripts and Their Makers [8] and The Gilded Page: The Secret Lives of Medieval Manuscripts. [9] [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Codex</span> Historical ancestor of the modern book

The codex was the historical ancestor of the modern book. Instead of being composed of sheets of paper, it used sheets of vellum, papyrus, or other materials. The term codex is often used for ancient manuscript books, with handwritten contents. A codex, much like the modern book, is bound by stacking the pages and securing one set of edges by a variety of methods over the centuries, yet in a form analogous to modern bookbinding. Modern books are divided into paperback and those bound with stiff boards, called hardbacks. Elaborate historical bindings are called treasure bindings. At least in the Western world, the main alternative to the paged codex format for a long document was the continuous scroll, which was the dominant form of document in the ancient world. Some codices are continuously folded like a concertina, in particular the Maya codices and Aztec codices, which are actually long sheets of paper or animal skin folded into pages. In Japan, concertina-style codices called orihon developed during the Heian period (794–1185) were made of paper.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Francis of Assisi</span> Italian Catholic saint (c. 1181–1226)

Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, known as Francis of Assisi, was an Italian mystic and Catholic friar who founded the religious order of the Franciscans. He was inspired to lead a Christian life of poverty as a beggar and itinerant preacher. One of the most venerated figures in Christianity, Francis was canonized by Pope Gregory IX on 16 July 1228. He is commonly portrayed wearing a brown habit with a rope tied around his waist, featuring three knots that symbolize the three Franciscan vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manuscript</span> Document written by hand

A manuscript was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has come to be understood to further include any written, typed, or word-processed copy of an author's work, as distinguished from the rendition as a printed version of the same.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scribe</span> Person who wrote or copied manuscripts

A scribe is a person who serves as a professional copyist, especially one who made copies of manuscripts before the invention of automatic printing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Illuminated manuscript</span> Manuscript in which the text is supplemented by the addition of decoration

An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared document where the text is decorated with flourishes such as borders and miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Church for prayers, liturgical services and psalms, the practice continued into secular texts from the 13th century onward and typically include proclamations, enrolled bills, laws, charters, inventories and deeds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scriptorium</span> Room in medieval European monasteries for writing

Scriptorium, literally "a place for writing", is commonly used to refer to a room in medieval European monasteries devoted to the writing, copying and illuminating of manuscripts commonly handled by monastic scribes.

Margery Kempe was an English Christian mystic, known for writing through dictation The Book of Margery Kempe, a work considered by some to be the first autobiography in the English language. Her book chronicles her domestic tribulations, her extensive pilgrimages to holy sites in Europe and the Holy Land, as well as her mystical conversations with God. She is honoured in the Anglican Communion, but has not been canonised as a Catholic saint.

<i>The Secret Garden</i> 1911 novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Secret Garden is a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett first published in book form in 1911, after serialisation in The American Magazine. Set in England, it is one of Burnett's most popular novels and is seen as a classic of English children's literature. Some of Burnett's other popular novels include Little Lord Fauntleroy, The Lost Prince and A Little Princess. Several stage and film adaptations have been made of The Secret Garden. The American edition was published by the Frederick A. Stokes Company with illustrations by Maria Louise Kirk and the British edition by Heinemann with illustrations by Charles Heath Robinson.

<i>London Review of Books</i> British journal of literary reviews

The London Review of Books (LRB) is a British literary magazine published twice monthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cairo Geniza</span> Collection of Jewish manuscript fragments

The Cairo Geniza, alternatively spelled Genizah, is a collection of some 400,000 Jewish manuscript fragments and Fatimid administrative documents that were kept in the genizah or storeroom of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Fustat or Old Cairo, Egypt. These manuscripts span the entire period of Middle-Eastern, North African, and Andalusian Jewish history between the 6th and 19th centuries CE, and comprise the largest and most diverse collection of medieval manuscripts in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rubrication</span> Red text added for emphasis in a manuscript

Rubrication is the addition of text in red ink to a manuscript for emphasis. Practitioners of rubrication, so-called rubricators or rubrishers, were specialized scribes who received text from the original scribe. Rubrication was one of several steps in the medieval process of manuscript making. The term comes from the Latin rubrīcāre, "to color red", the base word being ruber, "red". The practice began in pharaonic Egypt with scribes emphasizing important text, such as headings, new parts of a narrative, etc., on papyri with red ink.

<i>Textus Roffensis</i> Mediaeval manuscript

The Textus Roffensis, fully titled the Textus de Ecclesia Roffensi per Ernulphum episcopum and sometimes also known as the Annals of Rochester, is a mediaeval manuscript that consists of two separate works written between 1122 and 1124. It is catalogued as "Rochester Cathedral Library, MS A.3.5" and as of 2023 is currently on display in a new exhibition at Rochester Cathedral, Rochester, Kent. It is thought that the main text of both manuscripts was written by a single scribe, although the English glosses to the two Latin entries were made by a second hand. The annotations might indicate that the manuscript was consulted in some post-Conquest trials. However, the glosses are very sparse and just clarify a few uncertain terms. For example, the entry on f. 67r merely explains that the triplex iudiciu(m) is called in English, ofraceth ordel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Ford (poet)</span> British poet

Mark Ford is a British poet. He is currently Professor of English in the Department of English Language and Literature at University College London.

The N-Town Plays are a cycle of 42 medieval Mystery plays from between 1450 and 1500.

<i>The Book of Margery Kempe</i> 15th-century autobiography of Margery Kempe

The Book of Margery Kempe is a medieval text attributed to Margery Kempe, an English Christian mystic and pilgrim who lived at the turn of the fifteenth century. It details Kempe's life, her travels, her accounts of divine revelation including her visions of interacting with the Trinity, particularly Jesus, as well as other biblical figures. These interactions take place through a strong, mental connection forged between Kempe and said biblical figures. The book is also notable for her claiming to be present at key biblical events such as the Nativity, shown in chapter six of Book I, and the Crucifixion.

Donald Spoto was an American biographer and theologian. He was known for his bestselling biographies of people in the worlds of film and theater, and for his books on theology and spirituality.

A manuscript culture is a culture that depends on hand-written manuscripts to store and disseminate information. It is a stage that most developed cultures went through in between oral culture and print culture. Europe entered the stage in classical antiquity. In early medieval manuscript culture, monks copied manuscripts by hand. They copied not just religious works, but a variety of texts including some on astronomy, herbals, and bestiaries. Medieval manuscript culture deals with the transition of the manuscript from the monasteries to the market in the cities, and the rise of universities. Manuscript culture in the cities created jobs built around the making and trade of manuscripts, and typically was regulated by universities. Late manuscript culture was characterized by a desire for uniformity, well-ordered and convenient access to the text contained in the manuscript, and ease of reading aloud. This culture grew out of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) and the rise of the Devotio Moderna. It included a change in materials, and was subject to remediation by the printed book, while also influencing it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Winchester Bible</span> 12th-century illuminated manuscript

The Winchester Bible is a Romanesque illuminated manuscript produced in Winchester between 1150 and 1175 for Winchester Cathedral. With folios measuring 583 x 396 mm., it is the largest surviving 12th-century English Bible. The Bible belongs to a group of large-sized Bibles that were made for religious houses all over England and the continent during the 12th century. The Winchester Bible is important to understanding the history of medieval art, because it was left only partially completed, giving insight into the creation and production of these kinds of Bibles. It can still be seen in the Winchester Cathedral Library, which has been its home for more than eight hundred years. Before it was returned to Winchester Cathedral, the Bible had many owners and suffered because of it. Pages have been removed and torn out; one of those pages is known as the Morgan Leaf and is now owned by the Morgan Library in New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sherborne Missal</span>

The Sherborne Missal is an early 15th-century English illuminated manuscript missal, one of the finest English examples of International Gothic painting. With 347 vellum leaves measuring 535 by 380 millimetres, it weighs 20 kg. It has survived in excellent condition, and is usually on display at the Ritblat Gallery in the British Library. It has been described as "beyond question the most spectacular service book of English execution to have come down to us from the later Middle Ages."

Eleanor Prescott Hammond (1866–1933) was an American scholar of English literature, particularly Chaucer studies. She studied at Oxford under Arthur Sampson Napier, earning her B.A. in 1894. She obtained a Ph.D. at the University of Chicago in 1898, then taught there in the English department before leaving to become a schoolteacher and independent scholar. She also taught at Wellesley College.

References

  1. 1 2 "OUR AUNTIE DIANA; Young ones who held a special place in the Princess's heart. - Free Online Library". www.thefreelibrary.com.
  2. 1 2 "Mary Wellesley | Institute of Historical Research, University of London - Academia.edu". history.academia.edu.
  3. 1 2 "About | Mary Wellesley".
  4. Wellesley, Mary (2019-05-23). "This place is pryson". London Review of Books. Vol. 41, no. 10. ISSN   0260-9592 . Retrieved 2023-12-21.
  5. Wellesley, Mary (2022-06-10). "Mary Wellesley | On Cravings". LRB Blog. Retrieved 2023-12-21.
  6. Wellesley, Mary (July 27, 2023). "Mary Wellesley · At the National Gallery: St Francis of Assisi". London Review of Books. 45 (15) via www.lrb.co.uk.
  7. Wellesley, Mary (April 25, 2023). "Podcast: Mary Wellesley and Mark Ford · Thomas Hardy's Medieval Mind". London Review of Books.
  8. "Linda Porter - Spirit of Parchment". Literary Review. 2023-12-21. Retrieved 2023-12-21.
  9. Magazine, Smithsonian; Solly, Meilan. "The Unheralded Women Scribes Who Brought Medieval Manuscripts to Life". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2023-12-21.
  10. DeGroot, Gerard (2023-12-21). "Hidden Hands: The Lives of Manuscripts and Their Makers by Mary Wellesley review — secrets and scribes". ISSN   0140-0460 . Retrieved 2023-12-21.