A Reading Lesson with Lady Guildford

Hans Holbein the Younger’s portrait of Mary, Lady Guildford (c. 1490—ca. 1527) is a splendid example of the Tudor taste for images of women cradling elegant books. Lady Guildford’s book is small but sumptuous, featuring silver clasps and an ornate, braided bookmark. In this talk, Helen Smith, professor of English and Related Literature, University of York, will metaphorically unclasp the covers of Guildford’s volume, exploring the pages inside and showing what both book and portrait have to tell us about women’s reading, the status of books in Tudor England, and what books symbolized in the art of Holbein and his contemporaries. 

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