Medieval Women: In Their Own Words

Medieval Women: In Their Own Words ran at the British Library from 25 October 2024 to 2 March 2025. Led by curator Eleanor Jackson, it brought together more than 140 objects from the Library's collection and from international lenders, arranged around three themes: private lives, public lives and spiritual lives.

Among the items on show were a letter from Joan of Arc of 1429, lent from France and carrying the earliest known example of her signature; works by Christine de Pizan, often described as Europe's first professional woman author; the only surviving copy of The Book of Margery Kempe, the earliest known autobiography in English; and a 1477 letter from Margery Brews to her fiancé, often cited as the oldest surviving Valentine letter in English.

For writers and readers, the exhibition was a reminder that authorship, letter-writing and book ownership were never an exclusively male affair, and that many of these texts survive only in a single copy.

Sources: British Library press release; British Library 2025 exhibitions announcement.