Esther Inglis meet Taylor Swift

Go behind the scenes to learn more about the creation of our special exhibition, Little Books, Big Gifts: The Artistry of Esther Inglis, on view through February 9 in the Rose Exhibition Hall. Inglis has entered a new era 400 years after her death as 21st-century audiences discover her extraordinary miniature books “can still make the whole place shimmer.” 

When you tri-curate an exhibition and the labels are almost due, the marginal conversations in the shared label-writing document can get pretty punchy. Georgianna, Ashley, and I were coming at Esther Inglis’s artistry from a variety of perspectives—as Esther’s biographer, as an early modern historian, and as a curator. The conversation in the margins reflected our feelings about Esther and what she meant to us in the summer of 2024. An alternative set of headlines for each of the cases began to emerge.

As Little Books, Big Gifts: The Artistry of Esther Inglis winds down, and before the twelve gorgeous Esther Inglis manuscripts return to our vault and to the Houghton Library’s vault, we present the multi-sensory alt-curators’ cut, with new headlines, a playlist, and a closer look at three Inglis books in the exhibition.

Ashley provides some background: “We were working on the Esther Inglis exhibit as I prepared to travel abroad for Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour, and we continued to work on it for the remainder of the summer. Separated by 400 years, you might think Esther and Taylor have little in common, but both made a name for themselves through their artistic talents and careful image curation. So, I did the only rational thing and created a Taylor-themed Spotify playlist for the exhibition and to highlight the eras of Esther’s life.”

Explore Esther’s life and art with this Taylor Swift playlist

Little Books, Big Gifts: The Alt-Curators Cut

1  |  “Invisible String”

People have always exchanged gifts, across all cultures and time periods. Sometimes a gift is just a gift—a sign of friendship, love, honor, and respect. Sometimes a gift comes with the expectation that the gesture will be returned. Esther’s gifts were a bit of both: she wanted to inspire the Protestant heroes of Europe with her beautiful and virtuous books, but she also hoped that they would reward her for her efforts. It was not unusual for writers and artisans to seek the patronage of high-status people.

2  |  “Champagne Problems”

What do you gift an 18-year-old future king who has it all? A tiny book, handwritten with a quill pen and a pot of iron gall ink, and elaborately illustrated with coats of arms, decorative borders, flowers, and insects. Obviously, you use expensive pigments to create colorful title pages and dedications. And you embroider the velvet binding with silk floss, seed pearls, and silver thread.

3  |  “London Boy”

Esther gifted five of her books to Prince Henry, the eldest son and heir apparent of James VI and I, King of England and Scotland. She received £22 for her efforts (about half her husband’s annual salary at the time, or around $4000 today). This one includes a self-portrait and a drawing of King David kneeling in prayer. In the dedication, she pasted “great Britaine” over Wales, updating the page to show her support of King James’s vision of uniting England and Scotland (see it above in the image opposite #1 | “Invisible String”).

4  |  “Mastermind”

Esther’s creations, however, did more than support the vision of King James VI. They also made a name for Esther. A name she made sure recipients of her gifts remembered by including self-portraits in her books. Like selfies today, the goal of early modern self-portraits was to shape the way others perceive you. Esther was the first woman in Britain to include self-portraits in her books. Twenty-five of them survive, representing four different portrait styles. Esther’s self-portraits followed trends in portraiture and evolved with her career. As she established herself as an artist, she ditched the acceptable signs of female conformity and represented herself solely as a book artist and calligrapher. Eventually, even the desk and writing tools disappear, and it is just Esther.

5  |  “Illicit Affairs”

Early in her career, Esther worked alongside her husband, Bartilmo Kello, who was employed as a diplomatic agent, or intelligencer, for King James. Kello helped distribute Esther’s manuscripts to influential Protestants in England and Europe to solidify their support for James’s succession to the English throne. Esther’s husband probably delivered one of her books to Prince Maurice of Nassau while on a mission to the Protestant Netherlands in 1599. King James wanted Maurice’s support in obtaining the English throne after Queen Elizabeth’s death.

6  |  “You’re on Your Own, Kid”

Esther’s success at the court of King James VI allowed her to become the breadwinner for her husband and eight children. When James became the James I King of England, Esther gifted books to high-ranking officials in the new Stuart court following the death of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603. Esther’s tiny books became an important side hustle for the family. Her husband didn’t have a steady job after working on the unofficial succession campaign for James VI to succeed the child-free Queen Elizabeth.

7  |  “Bejeweled”

We’ve all heard the expression, “you can’t judge a book by its cover.” But that’s precisely what Esther meant her recipients to do. Esther made 11 of her 14 surviving embroidered bindings for royalty. Her delicate bejeweled creations would have fit in nicely at court, where rooms were filled with embroidered hangings and furnishings and clothes were embroidered and bejeweled. Esther’s little books were precious objects, meant to be kept in curio cabinets and taken out for enjoyment in quiet times.

8  |  “Delicate”

Esther sometimes referred to her expertise in penmanship as “the diversity of characters, drawn by a feminine hand.” She hoped to impress and delight her audiences with her wide range of scripts. Some male writing masters argued that italic script was the only style that women had the strength and mental aptitude to write! Esther’s handwritten books contain over 45 different scripts. She learned the art of calligraphy from her mother, Marie Presot, who taught handwriting at the French school run by Esther’s father in Edinburgh, Scotland.

If you can’t make it to the Folger, you can enjoy the playlist while paging through the bookreader views of three of our Esther Inglis manuscripts.

Esther Inglis. Octonaries upon the vanitie and inconstancie of the world. Manuscript, 1600. V.a.91. Folger Shakespeare Library.

Esther Inglis. Octonaries upon the vanitie and inconstancie of the world. Manuscript, 1607. V.a. 92. Folger Shakespeare Library.

Esther Inglis. Les CL pseaumes de David. Manuscript, 1599. V.a. 93. Folger Shakespeare Library.