Sara Charles
Sara Charles is Co-Editor of Historical Research and Journals Manager for University of London Press
For the IHR, Sara is responsible for the Institute's academic journal Historical Research and part of the editorial team at University of London Press. She is a medieval book historian, particularly focused on manuscript-making techniques.
Institute roles
Sara is Editor for the IHR's journal, Historical Research and Journals Manager at University of London Press. She joined the IHR in 2015 as an Editorial Assistant for the Bibliography of British and Irish History, and became Assistant Editor of the IHR’s journal Historical Research in 2016. She moved to her new roles at the School of Advanced Study in 2021.
Sara has an MA in Library and Information Studies (UCL) and an MRes in the History of the Book from the Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study. She is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and committee member of the History of Women Religious in Britain and Ireland.
Sara's research interests
Sara is currently a PhD student at the Institute of English Studies, researching medieval martyrologies under the supervision of Cynthia Johnston (IES) and Alan Thacker (IHR). She also researches medieval female religious and decoration in manuscripts from the twelfth and thirteenth century.
Publications
Articles, chapters and books
The Medieval Scriptorium: How Manuscripts Were Made (Reaktion, 2024) FORTHCOMING
'Family and Friends: Gift Giving, Books, and Book Inscriptions in Women's Religious Communities' in Medieval Women Religious, c.800-c.1500, ed. Kimm Curran and Janet Burton (Boydell and Brewer, 2023), pp. 152-165
The litterae florissae of manuscripts in the late twelfth/early thirteenth century’, Manuscript Studies, 5 (2020), 79-119 https://muse.jhu.edu/article/754630
'Provenance evidence from Vesalius's De humani corporis fabrica libri Septem (1543 and 1555) and De humani corporis fabrica librorum epitome (1543) in the British Library and University College London', Library & Information History, 34:2 (2018), 104-28
'The literacy of English nuns in the early thirteenth century: evidence from London, British Library, Cotton MS Claudius D. III', Journal of Medieval Monastic Studies, 6 (2017), 77-107
Reviews
Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War (British Library, 19 October 2018 – 19 February 2019), exhibition review in Reviews in History(Opens in new window) (2018)
Hubert Wolf, The Nuns of Sant’ Ambrogio: the True Story of a Convent in Scandal, in Reviews in History (2016)
Scholar, courtier, magician: the lost library of John Dee (Royal College of Physicians, 18 January - 29 July 2016), exhibition review, in Reviews in History (2016)
Presentations
'The Medieval Readership of a Thirteenth-Century Manuscript from a Female Cistercian Priory’, Women and the Book Symposium, Institute of English Studies, University of London (October 2018)
‘The Women of Wintney Priory’, Gender, Religion and Power Conference, Royal Holloway, University of London (September 2019)
