Tudor Gifts: How to Win Friends and Influence People

Not Just the Tudors

History Hit

History

4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 27 July 2023

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How meaningful can a gift - especially of a book - be? In the fickle world of the Tudor court, the strategic gifting of books was a common practice, bound up in relationships of power, politics and protest. A new exhibition exploring this subject at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, includes a stunning book made by a young Elizabeth I which she gave to Katherine Parr as a New Year’s gift in 1544.

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb visits the exhibition to find out more from curator Dr Nicholas Perkins and historian Dr. Felicity Heal.

This episode was edited by Joseph Knight and produced by Rob Weinberg.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to not just the tutors from History Hit.
0:03.1	To listen to all of our episodes, add free and watch hundreds of history documentaries,
0:08.4	download the History Hit app or go to historyhit.com forward slash subscribe.
0:15.1	And if you're an Apple listener, you can subscribe for new,
0:18.8	add free episodes within the app.
0:21.1	A special exhibition at the Bodleian Library in Oxford is exploring the importance of gift
0:31.3	giving through books and across time. Books, of course, make good gifts and they're also a
0:36.7	powerful means by which people tell each other about the importance of giving and its risks.
0:42.1	In early modern Britain, social structures revolved around give and take.
0:47.2	Whether those gifts were books, food, hospitality or advice.
0:52.7	This was a culture that intensely scrutinised and agonised over giving about getting it right.
0:59.6	Whether that was giving, receiving or reciprocating, especially when it came to the annual
1:05.1	new year gift giving of the tutor court. What do you give to the person who has everything?
1:11.0	Elizabeth I, courtyers, worried about this problem too.
1:14.4	My guest today are the Exhibition's Curator, Dr. Nicholas Perkins, Associate Professor and
1:21.3	Tutor of English at St Hughes College, Oxford, whose publications include the gift of narrative
1:27.4	in Medieval England and he is joined by the author of the Exhibition's book chapter on the
1:33.7	early modern period and a returning guest to this podcast, Dr. Felicity Heel. Dr. Heel is a
1:39.5	meritist fellow of Jesus College, Oxford and was a lecturer in history at University of Oxford.
1:46.0	She's published extensively on early modern British history including a book on the power of gifts,
1:52.4	gift exchange in early modern England. We're recording at the Bodleian itself. Let's go in.
2:09.7	Nicholas, you curated this exhibition. What were you seeking to convey? What's the heart of this
	...

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