Overview

In medieval England, women in labor wrapped birth girdles around their abdomens to protect themselves and their unborn children. These parchment or paper rolls replicated the ""girdle relics"" of the Virgin Mary and other saints loaned to queens and noblewomen, extending childbirth protection to women of all classes. This book examines the texts and images of nine English birth girdles produced between the reigns of Richard II and Henry VIII. Cultural artifacts of lay devotion within the birthing chamber, the birth girdles offered the solace and promise of faith to the parturient woman and her attendants amid religious dissent, political upheaval, recurring epidemics, and the onset of print.

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9781501518140

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""[T]his is a sustained and thorough work of scholarship that brings all Morse's previous work on the rolls together, along with a large amount of new material, into a compelling whole."" (Sophia Adams in: Journal of the Early Book Society for the Study of Manuscripts and Printing History 27 (2024), 231)

Author Information

Mary Morse specializes in medieval women’s devotional and childbirth practices. She is Professor Emerita of English and past director of the Gender and Sexuality Studies program at Rider University.

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