Dr Carrie Griffin, University of Limerick

School of English

18 March 2020, 3-4 pm,

O'Rahilly Building, 2.12, UCC

A large body of English manuscripts from 1550-1700 were compiled by women for domestic use. These books were often repositories of practical instructions, preserving the culinary and medical recipes frequently required by the household. I will argue that these volumes are symbolically significant, responsive to critical analysis not as mere containers for preserving texts but as evidence of female education and agency within the domestic space. Specifically, I examine recipes for ink, paper, vellum etc as embedded discourses demonstrating the centrality of literate practices to women’s domestic work. Such recipes contribute to the feminization of male-dominated book-production by the 1550s.