It's time to test your knowledge about women from the Middle Ages, as featured in our major new exhibition Medieval Women: In Their Own Words. There are no prizes for getting the answers, just the warm glow of knowing you can tell your Eleanors from your Margarets, and your Isabellas from your Margerys. We'll be setting more quizzes over the coming months, so thinking caps on!

The skull of a Barbary lion on display in the Medieval Women exhibition, kindly loaned by the Natural History Museum

 

1. Which medieval queen owned a pet lion?  Eleanor of Aquitaine/Isabella the She-Wolf/Margaret d'Anjou/Juana of Castile

2. The Trotula is named after which medical practitioner?  Trota of Salerno/Trota of Seville/Trota of Salamanca/Trota of Salisbury

3. Which medieval visionary was fond of hazelnuts?  Birgitta of Sweden/Julian of Norwich/Catherine of Siena/Hildegard of Bingen

4. Where would you wrap a birthing girdle?  Round your ankle/belly/wrist/neck

5. A letter written in 1429 bearing the first-known signature of which famous woman is on display in the UK for the very first time?  Margaret Paston/Margery Kempe/Eleanor Cobham, Duchess of Gloucester/Joan of Arc

 

We will post the answers @BLMedieval on Sunday, 3 November.

Medieval Women: In Their Own Words is on show at the British Library from 25 October 2024 to 2 March 2025. You can book your tickets online.

This exhibition is made possible with support from Joanna and Graham Barker, Unwin Charitable Trust, and Cockayne – Grants for the Arts: a donor advised fund held at the London Community Foundation.

 

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