SYON BOOKS AT LAMBETH PALACE LIBRARY – 1 July to 21 November 2024

‘Her booke’: Early Modern Women and their Books at Lambeth Palace Library

This exhibition highlights material owned, written, commissioned, and translated by women during the long early modern period. It celebrates the ways in which women and their books were an integral part of England’s devotional, intellectual, and bibliographical cultures. Beginning in the late fifteenth century, the exhibition will examine the production and use of books for personal and spiritual practices; books as a statement of power and piety; the development of the commercial trade in books; books as a site to demonstrate women’s intellectual ability; and the material evidence of women’s book ownership.

Items on display include medieval manuscripts written by the sisters of Syon Abbey. such as MS 546 (the Elizabeth Woodford manuscript), MS 3600 (the prayer book that inspired Harley 494), and MS 3774 (the Requiem Offices). There will also be printed books on display commissioned by Margaret Beaufort.

This exhibition will include a programme of lectures by Helen Smith (University of York), and exhibition curator Julia King, as well as a special curator’s panel where guests can participate in a Q&A with the curator and the British Library’s Eleanor Jackson, co-curator of the upcoming exhibition Medieval Women: In Their Own Words.

For more information on Syon-related events, see the following links:

• https://www.lambethpalacelibrary.info/exhibitions/her-booke/
• https://www.lambethpalacelibrary.info/event/helen-smith-university-of-york-guest-lecture-on-early-modern-women-and-printing/
• https://www.lambethpalacelibrary.info/event/julia-king-lambeth-palace-library-curators-lecture-on-syon-abbey-and-cultures-of-womens-reading/
• https://www.lambethpalacelibrary.info/event/curators-forum-julia-king-lambeth-palace-library-and-eleanor-jackson-british-library/

You can see further details of these events, and register to attend them, on the Lambeth Palace Library events page.

Free Entry
1 July to 21 November 2024
9:30-17:00 Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday
9:30-19:00 Thursday
Exhibition Room
Saturday 6 July, 3 August, 7 September, 5 October, 2 November.