Little Books, Big Gifts: The Artistry of Esther Inglis
A special exhibition at the Folger
Booking and details
Plan your visitDates Fri, Oct 25, 2024 – Sun, Feb 9, 2025
Venue Stuart and Mimi Rose Rare Book and Manuscript Exhibition Hall
Tickets Free; timed-entry pass recommended
Esther Inglis (1570?—1624) was a professional-class Franco-Scottish refugee, a working mother of eight, and a contemporary of Shakespeare. Earning her living by her pen, she combined her artistic skills and her religious beliefs to create over 60 miniature handwritten and hand-illustrated books. She strategically gifted these books to dozens of prominent European Protestants during a period of religious turmoil. Four hundred years after her death, this exhibition explores Esther’s life and work as an early modern influencer and as the first woman in Britain to preface her works with selfies.
Little Books, Big Gifts showcases 12 examples of Inglis’ work, from both the Folger’s own collection and select items from the Houghton Library at Harvard University, illustrating the breadth of Inglis’ artistic, literary, and social networking achievements. Together, the two libraries hold the largest selection of Inglis’ surviving works in the United States.
What’s on view
The exhibition highlights a diverse selection of Inglis’ works, including handwritten versions of the Bible in Latin, English, and French, as well as her translations of French religious texts into Scots-English.
Her exceptional skill in calligraphy is displayed through her use of a wide array of handwriting styles, created with a quill pen and iron gall ink.
Among the highlights of the exhibition are several books Inglis created for Prince Henry, son of King James VI and I, whose untimely death in 1612 at the age of 18 deeply affected the Stuart royal court.
These books represent Inglis’ strategic networking efforts, as she gifted her works to royalty and other high-ranking officials in hopes of securing financial support and patronage for her family.
Inglis’ artistry extended beyond the written word; her books were often adorned with vivid illustrations, coats of arms, and self-portraits rendered in expensive pigments, as well as embroidered covers stitched with velvet, silk floss, pearls, and silver thread.
Inspired by Esther Inglis’s work? Stop by our Engagement Table to fold a book, draw a self-portrait, and put your calligraphy skills to work to create a special gift.
Meet the curators
Ashley Buchanan
Ashley Buchanan is the Associate Director of Fellowships for the Folger Institute and a historian of the early modern world, with a particular interest in plants, recipes, and medicinal cultures in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe. Her research spans many topics which includes the history of science and medicine, women, and politics as well as the dynamics of gender and authority. Her current book project investigates the social, cultural, and political significance of pharmaceutical experimentation as well as the medicinal and botanical patronage at the court of the last Medici Princess, Anna Maria Luisa de Medici (1667–1743).
Heather Wolfe
Heather Wolfe is Curator of Manuscripts at the Folger. She is currently writing a book on early modern stationery in England. She has published widely on topics such as early modern women’s manuscripts, writing tables, filing holes, letterwriting practices, Shakespeare’s coat of arms, rag collectors, and hybrid books. She teaches paleography (how to read old handwriting) for the Folger Institute and is leading an ongoing project to transcribe all of the Folger’s manuscripts. She curated the online resources Shakespeare Documented and Early Modern Manuscripts Online and was co-director of the Mellon-funded project Before Farm to Table. With Julie Fisher and Sara Powell, she created the virtual paleographical escape room, The Ghost of Blithfield Hall, which has been played by hundreds of budding paleographers.
Georgianna Ziegler
Georgianna Ziegler is the Louis B. Thalheimer Assoc. Librarian and Head of Reference Emerita at the Folger Shakespeare Library. She has published widely on early modern women in literature and art, and curated major exhibitions at the Folger, including Elizabeth I: Then and Now and Shakespeare’s Sisters. Her article on Inglis’s self-portraits appeared recently in Renaissance Quarterly, and she also wrote the entries on Esther Inglis for The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women and the History of the Book in Scotland volume 1. She maintains a major website on Esther Inglis and is currently finishing the first book-length biography of her for Edinburgh University Press.
Look inside
Turn the pages of three of the Esther Inglis books on display in this exhibition.
V.a.91: “Octonaries upon the vanitie and inconstancie of the world writin by Esther Inglis., 1600/01 January 1 / [manuscript]”
V.a.92: “Octonaries upon the vanitie and inconstancie of the world writin and limd be me Esther Inglis., 1607 December 23 / [manuscript]”
V.a.93: “Les CL pseaumes de David escrites en diverses sortes de lettres par Esther Anglois, Françoise, Lislebourg, 1599. [manuscript]”
Related programs
Gallery Talk: Little Books, Big Gifts
Coded Threads: Translating Shakespeare Through Art
More on
Esther Inglis
Covering Esther, or What Happens When Renaissance Woman Esther Inglis Exchanges Her Brush and Pen for a Needle: Examining Embroidery Through Reproduction
A behind the scenes look at the creation of a reproduction of one of the embroidered bindings on display in Little Books, Big Gifts: The Artistry of Esther Inglis.
Princely New Year's Gift? A Newly-Discovered Manuscript
What better way to greet the New Year than with a ceremony of gift giving among friends and acquaintances? It was certainly a popular way to celebrate at the courts of Elizabeth I and her successor, James I.
Spotlight on a calligrapher
In an era when many schools don’t even teach cursive handwriting anymore because everyone taps out their messages on screens, it may seem quaint to focus on a woman known for her handwriting. But that’s exactly why we’re attracted to Esther Inglis.
Also on exhibit at the Folger
Our Shakespeare Exhibition
