Elizabeth I

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Esther Inglish
"A New Yeeres Guift" (1606-7)
Newberry Library (Wing MS ZW 645 .K29)
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This beautiful, handmade book by Esther Inglish (1571-1624) shows the achievements of educated women of the time. Each of Inglish's books was made for a specific patron, usually a leading noblewoman-one even for Elizabeth herself. The delicate flowers and birds surrounding Inglish's script are reminiscent of the fine illuminated manuscripts produced in Ghent and Bruges a century earlier.

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