Unknown Hands is the first large-scale project dedicated to uncovering, cataloguing, and visualizing the work of female scribes in Christian Europe before 1600. For centuries, the contributions of women to manuscript culture remained invisible or underestimated. This project seeks to bring them into focus.
Using archival research, codicology, paleography, and digital humanities methods, Unknown Hands compiles evidence of women’s involvement in book production: from explicitly named scribes to anonymous “hands” identified through palaeography and contextual study. The project introduces new models for studying manuscripts and pays particular attention to gender, multilingualism, and collaborative practices.
Our goals are:
The project is in active development. Explore our About page to learn more about the methods, see the Explore the database to visualize the data or visit the Bibliography for key references on the subject of female scribes.