This is Wellcome manuscript 632, A birth girdle from about 1500.
It's all handwritten on parchment, which is treated animal skin and it contains a variety of images and texts in both English and Latin, all of which work towards protecting the bearer of the manuscript from different dangerous situations.
So the manuscript is in the form of a roll. It's about ten centimetres wide and a little bit over three meters long. When it's rolled up, it's quite a small, tight package. It could be easily carried in a pouch or a pocket, and when unrolled, it could be quite an unwieldy long strip of parchment.
The reason that we call it a girdle is because one of the ways that it could have been used was to have it wrapped around you in order to protect you physically like a belt, which is what girdle means.
We call it a birth girdle because one of the situations that it could have been used was to protect someone while they were pregnant or in labour, but there were a lot of different contexts that this birth girdle could have been used in.
The top of the manuscript is all jagged. it is not a nice smooth line. This means that some of the text is missing from the top of it. That makes sense because this manuscript was used heavily.
It was a very interactive manuscript. You are meant to touch it, possibly even kiss it in order to get some of the benefits.
The image that we have here is of the three nails, used to pin Christ to the cross at the crucifixion. The darker color that we've got behind is a decorative pigment. But we'll see later on that there are some stains along the manuscript that weren't quite as deliberate. You can see here some splotches at the bottom half that look a lot less deliberate. They don't really match up with any of the images, and so they were probably bodily fluids, or maybe even liquids that were used as medications in a more sort of bodily context.
The text that we have here refers to Quiricus and Julitta. These are two people who were son and mother who were martyred, and they became venerated as Saints who would protect you in childbirth.
We can also see in this image how the manuscript was constructed. It's made of different panels of parchment that have been stitched together at a later date. You can see the thread as it links these two bits together, creating the long strip that we now have.
The image that we have here is of a T-shaped cross surrounded by the Arma Christi, the instruments of the crucifixion. These instruments include dice, spears, even a ladder. The objects that were present in the run up to Christ's Passion.
Notice that the image here is worn in places. This would be because when people read it, they would have touched the images and that would have helped them gain the protection that they sought from this manuscript.
Here we can see the five wounds of Christ, the hands and feet that look human, and this stylized diamond shape in the middle with drops of blood falling from the bottom. This represents the side wound, and the letters IHS in the middle, stand for Jesus.
The red text that we can see now is an English prayer, towards the number of the drops of blood.
There's a lot of interest in medieval devotional culture about measurement and counting, and this would evoke quite a meditative state of mind as you would go through in a sort of repetitive process. Medieval Devotion was also quite a visceral experience. They didn't shy away from gore. You can see here a depiction of wounds on the hands and the feet. You might be expected to relate it to your own body, in your imagination, to go through the same pain that Christ or Saints would have gone through.
Notice here you can see the texture of the parchment very clearly. It's no longer a single uniform colour. That means that the parchment has degraded over time and through use. And it's important to remember that this manuscript wasn't just a display item, it was something that was very practical and would have been used in all sorts of situations, messy and active and physical.
That explains why we can't read a lot of the text on it. Like here, you can see the first few lines of this Latin prayer towards the side wound, but the lower down the manuscript, you get the more ink has been lost, possibly with people touching it, or possibly when the manuscript was used as a girdle and wrapped around the body. This would have been a section that would have been pressed against the body. And through friction, we've lost a lot of the ink from the surface of the manuscript.
What we can see here is a section from a text that's about 60 lines long. It's an invocation of God, giving us the names and attributes of God as well as the names of angels and various Saints. Some of the Saints referred to in this text include Mary, Anne, Catherine, Margaret, Dorothea and Barbara.
Notice that these are female Saints. Many of them would have been protectors during childbirth, but they also would have protected you in other circumstances, such as travel, storms, protecting you from plague or illness and protecting you in battle. It's important to recognise that battle and childbirth are being paralleled in this text, one of them a much more masculine thing and one a much more feminine thing. Both were seen as equally dangerous and equally worthy of getting protection.
The reader’s body was once again very important in the way that you would read this text. Every time you come up against one of these red crosses, you would be expected to make the sign of the cross, a kind of devotional choreography. Reading wasn't a static or silent experience. You might read aloud, and you were expected to move your body while you read this text. The form of the manuscript was very much related to the body. The manuscript was over three meters long, which was quite difficult to wrestle with.
Notice here that the text is going in a different direction from what we've seen previously. This is on the reverse side of the manuscript, and there are two lines of text. You would have to unroll the whole manuscript and move along from one end to the other in order to read this, unlike on the other side, where you could open up just a section at a time.
You might also roll up the manuscript and keep it on you. And that will be another way of accessing its protection.
The text that we can see here reads: “Who so beareth this measure upon them with true faith and good devotion will receive various benefits.”
Protection from these dangerous situations that we've discussed before, plague, illness, childbirth, battle, travel, stormy weather.
You can see as well, pigmentation on this part of the manuscript, like we saw in the three nails earlier. The pigmentation is spread over where the text is, but there are also some splotches at the edge of the manuscript that were more accidental stains. Remember that this was a very practical manuscript. The reason that it is so worn is because it was used, and it's amazing that it has even survived at all to this day.
