Among the exquisite bindings and unique collections of the Library in the Wormsley Estate, Oxfordshire, are three manuscripts by Esther Inglis. One of these, a calligraphic copy of Les Proverbes de Salomon [The Book of Proverbs] made by Inglis in 1599, was published as a facsimile in 2012 by the Roxburghe Club, edited by Nicolas Barker. Barker’s preface to this publication remains one of the most wide-reaching and pertinent introductions to Esther Inglis’ manuscripts to date.

In the summer of 2024, the Esther Inglis project was granted permission to photograph the three Inglis manuscripts held in the Wormsley Library for the project’s online exhibition. This blog post will introduce each of these manuscripts in turn, accompanied with photography carried out by Scriptura with the assistance of the Project Curator. This is the first time that the 1612 and 1624 manuscripts held at Wormsley Library have been made digitally available.

All images are copyright of the University of Edinburgh. The Esther Inglis project is grateful to the owners of the Wormsley Library Inglis manuscripts for granting permission for these books to be photographed, and to Robert Harding for assisting in this process.

This post is written by Anna-Nadine Pike, Project Curator of “Esther Inglis 2024”

❦

1. Les Proverbes de Salomon, 1599. Wormsley Library, RH158

This manuscript copy of the Book of Proverbs in French was produced by Esther Inglis in 1599 as a gift for Catherine de Bourbon (1558-1604), princess of Navarre. As in the other monochrome manuscripts which Inglis made between 1599 and 1602, this Wormsley manuscript has an upright format and is abundantly decorated with pen-work designs which imitate contemporary engravings and ornamentation found in printed books.

The Proverbs themselves have been copied out in Inglis’ characteristically wide range of calligraphic scripts; Nicolas Barker has identified eighteen different styles, most of which appear in this manuscript in multiple different sizes. Turning through its pages, this movement between scripts captivates a viewer’s attention, holding their gaze upon the words of the Proverbs which the manuscript contains.

As in other books within this group, the Wormsley manuscript opens with Esther Inglis’ own self-portrait, drawn by hand working from an engraving of the French poet Georgette de Montenay. This self-portrait page also points to an important feature of the Wormsley manuscript; on all but one of its folios, the borders to each page are printed engravings. The exception is the page with Inglis’ own portrait, on which she draws a border in imitation of the printed page opposite it. The subtle visual contrast between these facing pages prompts a response in a viewer which recurs throughout Esther Inglis’ artistry and calligraphy. Her pages present a puzzle asking to be decoded; the viewer must constantly reassess what they think they are seeing, in a process which invites meditation upon the manuscript’s construction, and greater appreciation of Inglis’ artistic skill in producing it.

❦

2. The Psalmes of David, 1612. Wormsley Library, BM1851

Between 1612 and 1615, Esther Inglis began to work in a new style, producing a series of miniature Psalters which, in both size and aspect, closely follow printed Books of Psalms published at a similar time. These manuscripts are characterised by their upright format and their long introductory epistles written to their dedicatees, which represent Esther Inglis’ longest known works in prose. Other manuscripts found within this group are held in the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Royal Library of Sweden, and the National Library of Scotland. Wormsley Library’s BM1851 is important because it is the only manuscript within this group not made for a royal; it is dedicated instead to Sir David Murray of Gorthy, a close friend of Inglis and an important mediator between her family and the Jacobean court — Murray served as Gentleman of the Bedchamber to Prince Henry.

Of the four Psalters within this 1612-1615 group, the Wormsley manuscript bears the least decoration. Each of the other Books of Psalms contain miniature paintings of King David before the start of the Psalm texts, and the title-page to the National Library of Scotland is illuminated with a simplified version of Inglis’ characteristic floral borders. By contrast, BM1851 is embellished only with some gold additions to the title-page and opening of the text. In this way, it bears the closest similarity to the kinds of printed Psalters on which it would have been modelled.

Like her other miniature Psalters, this Wormsley manuscript also includes one of Esther Inglis’ self-portraits in a new style which she adopted in 1612. This portrait style sees Inglis depict herself within a blue oval frame, without the addition of the table or writing instruments seen in her earlier manuscripts. Each of these oval portraits were first painted onto card before being cut out and pasted into these miniature books.

Inglis’ 1612-1615 Books of Psalms are written in either French or English; the Wormsley example follows the English Psalms from the Geneva Bible. At first glance, it appears as though the manuscript is written in full imitation of a printed book — as a scribe, Esther Inglis’ later phase of work is characterised by her close reproduction of typeset texts. But the more a viewer turns the pages of this manuscript, the more they find elements which would never be possible in print. In her manuscript for David Murray, Esther Inglis’ writing changes every few Psalms — modulating between print imitation, and a fine secretary script which could only be drawn by hand. In this way, Inglis’ manuscript continually reminds its reader that the beauty and clarity of this pages is not the product of a printing press, but of her own hands.

The binding of this Wormsley manuscript is not original; it now has a red leather cover and has been rebound with decorative floral endpapers, typical of the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries. Nicolas Barker suggests that the leather binding is Scottish, pointing to the manuscript’s later life in Scotland.

❦

3. The Booke of the Psalmes of Davide in Prose, 1624. Wormsley Library, BM1850

Esther Inglis returned to the production of miniature Books of Psalms in 1624; alongside this manuscript at Wormsley Library, a second survives in Royal Library of Denmark. Contrasting with her 1612-1615 Psalters, these later manuscripts return to the decorative style of Esther Inglis’ early, monochrome work. They adapt the portrait type Inglis used between 1599 and 1602, and their title-pages repeat some of the decorative pen-work designs found in that earlier manuscript group. In a return to the structure of her 1599-1602 manuscripts, this Psalter also includes copies of the verses to Inglis originally written by Andrew Melville, John Johnstone and Robert Rollock in 1599. These same verses appear in the Proverbes also held at Wormsley, and comparison of these two manuscript types shows some circularity in the progression of Esther Inglis’ work across her lifetime — her final books hold visual echoes of her earliest productions.

Both of these 1624 Psalters retain their original embroidered bindings; the example from Wormsley Library bears the simple of a pelican in piety, feeding its young. The symbolism of the pelican, an emblem of self-sacrifice frequently associated with the monarchy, implies a royal recipient for this manuscript. This is reinforced by the image of a phoenix on the lower binding, a further symbol befitting a monarch or their heir. The other Psalter produced by Inglis in 1624 is overtly dedicated to Prince Charles and dated to the 5th March; the Wormsley manuscript dates to the 5th May. The March manuscript, however, includes a long prose epistle to Charles which is missing from the May example, leaving its intended owner still unidentified.

Esther Inglis’ Books of Psalms remain some of her least-known manuscripts in scholarship and beyond. The dispersal of Inglis’ miniature Psalters in libraries across the globe means that comparative work on these books remains a challenge. However, these Psalters are deserving of further attention. They embody an important interweaving of Esther Inglis’ diverse artistic skills, bringing together her crafts of calligraphy, illumination, miniaturisation, print imitation, and embroidery. The hope now is that the increasing accessibility of these manuscripts, facilitated by their digitisation and integration into the University of Edinburgh’s online exhibition, can ensure that these miniature celebrations of calligraphy are not forgotten within Esther Inglis’ remarkable manuscript corpus.

❦