19 – 23 July 2021

In July 2021, I attended the University of Cambridge’s Virtual Summer Festival and participated in the Illuminated Manuscripts of Medieval England course. This week-long course consisted of approximately five hours of recorded lectures from Professor Michelle Brown as well as additional readings, discussing different well known illuminated manuscripts. These manuscripts included the Lindesfarne Gospels, the Luttrell Psalter, the Holkham Bible and the Shelbourne Missal.

I chose to attend this course as I became interested in manuscripts and rare books while studying INF465 Working with Special and Cultural Collections. While I was eager to learn more about illuminated manuscripts, I was approaching them more from an information studies context. I was thinking of manuscripts in terms of collections, preservation, conservation, and access. This course opened me up to the world of manuscripts studies, palaeography, and codicology. It also introduced me to the study of book history and book arts.

I learnt about the history of these selected manuscripts, who created them and owned them, as well as the stories the illuminations and illustrations tell us, not only about the manuscript’s creators and owners, but also about the social and political environment of the time. Through this course, I gained an appreciation of manuscripts beyond what I had learnt in my studies so far.

This course showed me that I can have a career which satisfies and combines my interests in books, history, and information studies. Since I completed this course, I have started to plan my career path and set professional goals with the aim of working with manuscripts and rare books. These goals will be helpful for choosing professional development activities and deciding on future education. I have already started researching formal and informal education and activities I can pursue to increase my knowledge in this field. Planning my career path and professional goals will also assist me in the coming year as I start to think about possible hosts for my upcoming professional placement.