Nineteenth-century collectors created albums from all kinds of things including cuttings from medieval manuscripts. Most albums are associated with male collectors, but Margaret shows how women’s involvement with them may have been obscured. Few albums now remain intact, yet the way in which these assemblages presented medieval manuscripts has cast a long influence over modern perceptions of medieval books and their value.

Margaret Connolly is Professor of Palaeography and Codicology at the University of St Andrews and Director of the St Andrews Institute of Medieval Studies. Her research focuses on Middle English literature, and on English and Scottish book culture of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. She is also interested in discovering what happened to medieval manuscripts after the Middle Ages as they passed through the hands of antiquaries and collectors.