The Spiral-Locked Letters of Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots
Name
ebljarticle112021.pdf
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Size
15.7 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (CRC64NVME)
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Resource type
Journal article
Date published
2021
Abstract
This article presents evidence about the use of the ‘spiral lock’, a highly secure letterlocking mechanism used by Elizabeth I, Mary, Queen of Scots, and other letter-writers in early modern Europe, to secure their correspondence shut. After explaining the concept of letterlocking, a centuries-old communication security technique, we demonstrate how the spiral lock worked, using photographs, vector drawings, and videos alongside textual descriptions, and show both how the lock was made and how to recognize it in an archive. The findings are set in multiple contexts: letterlocking as a new field of study; new digital humanities research in the life and letters of Mary, Queen of Scots; and a major exhibition at the British Library on the intersecting lives of the two queens.
Contributor (person)
Journal title
Electronic British Library Journal
Volume
2021
Article number
11
Publisher
British Library
Place of publication
London, UK
eISSN
1478-0259
Official URL
Collection