Hidden Hands: Mary Wellesley (1413)
Dr Mary Wellesley, author of Hidden Hands: the Lives of Manuscripts and Their Makers
This week we head to fifteenth-century Norwich to meet two of the most extraordinary women in medieval England: Margery Kempe and Julian of Norwich.
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Manuscripts are one of the most tangible sources of evidence we have about the distant past and our guest this week, Mary Wellesley, has dedicated her professional life to studying them and persuading them to give up their secrets. In her spellbinding book, Hidden Hands: the Lives of Manuscripts and Their Makers, she reveals traces left by the people who made these vital artefacts. As she explains, manuscripts are ‘the only connection we have with these people in the past who would otherwise remain completely anonymous and unknown.'
In this episode Mary takes us to the early fifteenth century, a period of unease in religion when reformist ideas were circulating and the Church reacted violently against anything that appeared to challenge its orthodoxy.
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Show Notes
Scene One: Early 1413. The boisterous mystic and serial pilgrim visited the cell of the anchoress, Julian of Norwich.
Scene Two: Late 1413. Margery sets off on pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
Scene Three: 1413. The exemplar of the Short Text of Julian’s Revelations was copied.
Memento: Julian of Norwich's autograph copy of the Long Text.
People/Social
Presenter: Violet Moller
Guest: Mary Wellesley
Production: Maria Nolan
Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours
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About Mary Wellesley
Dr Mary Wellesley is a writer and historian, who teaches courses on medieval language and literature as part of the British Library’s adult learning programme. Her book, Hidden Hands: the Lives of Manuscripts and Their Makers was published in October 2021. It was chosen as one of the history books of the year by both The Times and BBC History Magazine.
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