I was fascinated by Medieval literature once upon a time but left it behind when I realized I'd never have my own personal wizard. The new movie, The Green Knight, got me fascinated all over with stories of saints doing weird things and other oddities of life. The Gilded Page, by Mary Wellesley, came along at the right time. Most Medieval manuscripts have been lost or destroyed through the ages, but the ones that survive have fascinating histories. We picture monks scribing away at illuminated books, but there were nuns, secular people writing commercially, and more women scribes (called a scriptrix) than our modern minds can imagine.
Talk about horror stories! That's what I mainly write about, but there were plenty of horrifying things going on in the Middle Ages. A few hundred men and women (mostly women) had themselves walled up in 12 square foot cells on the north side of churches, where they slept in their own graves and had a window looking out on the graveyard. They spent their lives there and at least one women lived to be seventy-three. They're in this book because they got a lot of writing done...as you can imagine.
I can get a good horror story out of walling up a recluse. I get crawlies thinking about it. I never would have thought about being walled up and having to sleep in a grave until I read this book.
I realize that putting color photography in books is expensive, but illustrations of Ms. Wellesley's wonderful descriptions would be nice. This would make a wonderful coffee table book, but would probably cost a fortune. I'm interested enough that I'm going to google-up these manuscripts so I can see the beautiful artwork. Isn't that what a good book does, make you want to learn more? This is a dandy book for anybody interested in the history of books and/or Medieval history. Thanks to Netgalley for allowing me to read and review The Gilded Page.
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