A Gold Girdle Book and its Connection with Anne Boleyn
Name
eBLJ_2022_article_11_Jackson_Eleanor_VoR_BY.pdf
Description
visibility:open
Size
1.11 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (CRC64NVME)
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Resource type
Journal article
Creator (person)
Jackson, Eleanor
Date published
February 20, 2023
Abstract
The miniature prayer book with the shelfmark Stowe MS. 956 has long attracted attention because of a story associating it with Anne Boleyn. According to an oft-repeated account, this tiny girdle book with a gold metalwork binding was handed by Anne to one of her maids of honour on the scaffold at her execution in 1536. Through examination of eighteenth and nineteenth century sources, this article demonstrates how the story originated. In the process, it untangles the history of the manuscript from that of another sixteenth-century gold girdle book, an heirloom of the Wyatt family. The findings clearly disprove the connection with Anne Boleyn, while alternative evidence suggests a more probable original owner for the volume.
Journal title
Electronic British Library Journal
Volume
2022
Article number
11
Publisher
British Library
Place of publication
London, UK
eISSN
1478-0259
Date accepted
December 15, 2022
Official URL
Additional information
Author note: Eleanor Jackson is Curator of Illuminated Manuscripts in the medieval manuscripts section of the British Library. She gained her Ph.D. in History of Art at the University of York in 2017, where her thesis focused on Insular pocket gospel books. In 2022 she was co-curator of the British Library exhibition Gold: 50 Spectacular Manuscripts from around the World.
Collection