Textmanuscripts - Les Enluminures

Despite living within deeply patriarchal cultures, medieval women at all levels of society took an active part in public life, in family trades and crafts, and often held positions of great respect and importance in their local communities, and sometimes even nationally. There are currently three different manuscripts on www.textmanuscripts.com that address very special women. They are books made for queens and queen-regents at important, transitional moments of their lives and while each book reflects the constraints that they faced as women, each also offers evidence of their power.

We appear to be living in a moment of “medievalism.” From Netflix’s extremely loose adaptation of the Decameron, to Chapell Roan’s armor-clad stage craft, to Labubu’s folkloric inspiration, and the popularity of manuscripts in video games, imaginary medieval aesthetics seem to be everywhere at the moment. Medievalist Megan Cook explains that “medievalism refers to any kind of post-medieval recreation, [or] imaginative engagement with the Middle Ages.” Roan’s costumes and Labubus might be examples of what Cook even calls “dirtbag medievalism,” but it turns out that medievalism has enjoyed regular cycles of popularity since almost the Middle Ages itself and in culture from highest to low.