Workshop: Books for the Soul: Personal Devotion in the Middle Ages, Denva Gallant, at Harvard University, 16 Oct. 2025 at 10:30am-12:30pm AND 3:00-5:00pm

Houghton-Medieval Studies Workshop on Early Book History

Books for the Soul: Personal Devotion in the Middle Ages

Denva Gallant (Rice University)

Hofer Classroom, Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

October 16, 2025, 10:30AM - 12:30PM ET and 3:00PM - 5:00 PM ET

Space in this hands-on workshop with Denva Gallant (Rice University) is limited. To register for the 10:30am-12:30pm workshop, please click here, and to register for the 3:00-5:00pm workshop, please click here.

Medieval readers turned to books not only for knowledge, but also for the nourishment of their spiritual lives. In this workshop, we will explore manuscripts from Houghton Library that reveal the many ways books shaped practices of prayer, meditation, and moral reflection. Together, we will consider these manuscripts as artefacts of personal devotion: how their texts, images, and physical features reflect the intentions of scribes and patrons; how signs of use capture the habits of readers; and how such books created spaces for private piety while also connecting to wider devotional communities. By situating them in their artistic and historical contexts, we will gain insight into the lived experience of devotion in the later Middle Ages.

Books for the Soul: Personal Devotion in the Middle Ages will be offered once in the morning and once in the afternoon, and space is limited. Please register for one session only.

For more information on the morning workshop, click here.

For more information on the afternoon workshop, click here.