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Miscellaneous Letterwriting in Renaissance England Edited by Alan Stewart and Heather Wolfe $45 / Univ. of WA Press / 2005 Letterwriting in Renaissance England is a comprehensive catalog on the 2005 Folger Library exhibition on the art of writing letters, in the days before manufactured pens and stationery, let alone email. Like all Folger publications, it is a gorgeous, scholarly, and insightful study, full of rare representations of the genre and reproductions of period artifacts. Two chapters cover fascinating case studies. One is John Donne’s Marriage Letters, two of which are reproduced here, one to his father-in-law Sir George More and one to Donne’s employer Sir Thomas Egerton. The other case study deals with James I’s secret letters to his protégé Robert Carr, and Carr’s friend Sir Thomas Overbury, who was poisoned in 1613 while imprisoned in the Tower of London. These letters contain much in the way of sub rosa intrigue and diplomacy. In addition to these, the book covers the nuts and bolts of letter-writing during the Renaissance, from the popularity of letter-writing manuals to a discussion of the secretaries who prepared the correspondence (as one can imagine, discretion was a large part of the job). And the description of the various tools required to write letters, from the quills to the ink and inkwells, the candlesticks (light was required to write, after all), and seals, provides insight into the challenges this activity presented. The development of the postal system, from messengers to postmasters and post roads, likewise describes the monumental obstacles that sending and delivering a letter during the Renaissance entailed, and the resourcefulness required of those who delivered the mail. Rooted in British culture and reflecting the habits of those who shared in it in terms of court politics, gender politics, the material conditions of pre-industrial England, and the process and products of letter-writing, illuminate the civilization in which they took place. For letters were written with the expectation that they would be read and circulated and preserved in official files. Anyone with an interest in the English Renaissance will want to own this fascinating book. — Charles Rammelkamp

Click here to order:Letterwriting in Renaissance England           To order Renaissance Magazine, click here. To order medieval tapestries and other period products, click here.