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‘Le miroir de l’âme pécheresse’ (‘The Mirror of the Sinful Soul’) (MS. Cherry 36, binding)
Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
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‘Le miroir de l’âme pécheresse’ (‘The Mirror of the Sinful Soul’) (MS. Cherry 36, fol. 2r)
Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
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Princess (later Queen) Elizabeth (1533–1603)

The eleven-year-old Elizabeth gave this book as a New Year’s gift to her stepmother, Katherine Parr, on 31 December 1544. It consists of Elizabeth’s own translation into English prose of a French meditational poem, written out in her own fine hand. The binding, considered to have been Elizabeth’s own handiwork, forms an integral part of the gift. Its highly personal nature is seen in Elizabeth’s working of her stepmother’s initials into the design in a way that echoes her signature as ‘K-P’.