Little Books, Big Gifts: The Artistry of Esther Inglis

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. 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.

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 eighteen 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.

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.

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.