| Popis: |
Printed book and manuscript dedications were at the juncture between the actual interests (and reading abilities) of Tudor royal ladies and the beliefs and hopes of those who wrote and printed them on what was suitable for royalty and how royal ladies might be persuaded in certain directions. This dissertation argues that dedications, and the negotiations that accompanied them, reveal both contemporary perceptions of how statecraft, religion, and gender were and the political maneuvering attempting to influence how they ought to be. In particular, this dissertation provides a case study of these textual negotiations as they related to Queen Mary I. The fact that Mary received eighteen manuscript dedications and thirty-three printed book dedications shows that even by the middle of the sixteenth century manuscripts and print competed for value and prestige among patrons. This study begins with an introductory chapter on printed dedications to Lady Margaret Beaufort and the six consorts of Henry VIII. After this background chapter, the remainder of the study focuses on Mary, first considering dedications directed to her while she was a princess. This study next turns to printed dedications that Mary received while she was queen, as the majority of them were religious in nature, specifically addressing a return to Catholicism. The next chapter examines dedicated manuscripts directed to Mary, as well as all dedications to Philip while he was King of England. The final chapter considers Mary’s personal library, demonstrating that Mary used her books to reflect her role in returning England to the true religion and that she valued books as much as precious items as she did for the knowledge that they held. Importantly, this dissertation is a revisionist approach to book history and Marian studies. My study contributes to the new historiography of how women, specifically royal women, were involved in book creation, production, and dissemination, through the relatively underused sources of dedications. Importantly, this dissertation offers the first comprehensive catalogue of all book and manuscript dedications to Mary and all books that were known to have been in Mary’s personal library. |
