Women, Manuscripts and Identity in Northern Europe, 1350–1550

Author Joni M. Hand sheds light on the reasons women of the Valois courts from the mid-fourteenth to the mid-sixteenth century commissioned devotional manuscripts. Visually interpreting the non-text elements - portraits, coats of arms, and marginalia - as well as the texts, Hand explores how the manuscripts were used to express the women’s religious, political, and/or genealogical concerns. This study is arranged thematically according to the method in which the owner is represented.