sister_raphael | Entries tagged with book

I'm supposed to promote books once a week at least, but I really try not to spam you all too much. It's 34 days until Xmas, so why not support a bricks-and-mortar bookshop and gift someone (or yourself) one of these? Perfect for your ren-faire friend or family who likes history and ye olden medieval dayes of olde might like to learn some real stuff! Written especially for non-academic history lovers.

A reminder that Bookshop is a great Amazon alternative (and I think they have a Black Friday sale running at the moment too.) If you live in Brisbane, BooksStones at Stones Corner on Logan Rd have stock and don't need to order in, and the Abbey Museum of Art and Archaeology Gift Shop are on Caboolture/Bribie Island Road, and always have stock too.

Other places may need to order in for you.

More text to add here, but the short version is Mango Publishing is now Key Lime Publishing, so you'll find me there. For those of us diligently avoiding Amazon, there are many shopping options which you'll find on my Where to Shop Page, but any bookshop should be able to get it in, so why not support them?

Look for me at BooksStones today for Love Your Bookshop Day 2026! Lots of cool stuff going on including find the Golden Ticket and win a ton of audiobooks for free! We have so much going on!

Chilling with Scarlet Skwirl.

I always have the best time at Stones Corner at my local book shop, I really do. People passing by like to stop and chat, and many of them are aspiring writers themselves, so there's lots to talk about. Others stop to say how much they like my outfit and ask where I got it. Sewing enthusiast just ask outright if I made it and we chat sewing. Quite a few have questions about medieval sex and where I get my information from. Some buy book sand others just take the free bookmarks, but either way, people leave happy with something to take home.

The book special I was running this year was very popular and definitely tipped the book-buying balance in my favour.

It was a great day and we stayed open an hour past usually Saturday closing time before I loaded up my trolley and strolled home back through the park. I was still in my medieval clothes, which made a posse of small party-goers very happy! To be honest, it makes me happy too!

Hildegarde von Bingham, like many of her contemporaries, felt that the natural world had a lot to offer, and this was applicable to the pains which accompanied childbirth. This was not considered witchcraft, as stones were a part of the natural world, given to us by God, and therefore to be used in the proper way to help us.

You'll notice that the use of the sard in this instance, was not magical in the least itself, but coupled with an invocation to God to help the suffering mother.

Here are the mineral properties of sard, as listed on the gemrockauctions website:

Mohs hardness: 6.5-7

Color: Reddish-brown, brown

Crystal structure: Trigonal

Luster: Vitreous (glassy), greasy, waxy, or resinous

Transparency: Semi-transparent to opaque

Refractive index: 1.53-1.54

Density: 2.56-2.68

Cleavage: None

Fracture: Conchoidal or granular

Streak: White

Luminescence: None

None of this seems particularly helpful for a birthing mother. The most helpful thing in the advice from Hildegarde was to massage the thighs.

Today a small amount of excitement as my publisher forwarded a sound bite of an audition for the audio version of my newest book, The Secret Lives of Single Medieval Women.

I quite liked it. The woman was English or was doing an English accent and read mostly the way I would, pausing where I would pause and emphasising the same words I would.

Hooray! I'll consider that a win.

A little quote from our beloved Christine de Pizan about the education of girls and women, which you can find in my book, "The Secret Lives of Single Medieval Women."

Christine was only married for a brief portion of her life and was educated as a young, unmarried women, and ran a successful business for many years as a widowed, single woman after the age of 25.

I've got a new sign for Newcastle Medieval Festival (Saturday, 30th and Sunday, 31st August 2025)!

I'm not a stall, per se, so I won't have more than a handful of these tucked away with me in my Medieval Bathing & Hygiene Display. I shared this to social media for those who would like to pay now and collect at the event so they don't miss out!

If you want to avoid Amazon and you're not in the States, you can buy from bookshop.org. If you're in the States, a bunch of places stock them, but you can buy direct from Mango Publishing who are fighting the good fight over there.

POSTPONED!

I've unfortunately got covid again, so my book event will at Books@Stones at Stones Corner is postponed.

FREE EVENT! I'll be chatting about my new book, Single Medieval Women in store on Thursday July 24th at BooksStones in Stones Corner, Brisbane.

Lucky door prize of medieval goodies! 6.30 to 7.30pm.

I hope you can make it, especially if you missed me at Abbey this year!

This year at the Abbey Medieval Festival, my talk in the University Pavilion "Single Medieval Women: Who Were They And What Did They Do?" will have an Auslan interpreter, so I'm making some adjustments to my new talk to make it easier for our sign language person!

I was asked to provide a script of my talk, but often I don't stick to the actual notes. I made a version with more common language, rewording some academic speak into other words. I have made bold some phrases and quotes so the interpreter knows that these are specifically important.

It's not dumbing the talk down, but thoughtful rephrasing.

It also gives the interpreter a chance to ask questions beforehand if something seems unclear.

Well, this is unexpected good news!

Single medieval women in the form of new widows were often in a position to travel. In fact, one particular widow was told by her husband on his deathbed that as soon as he dies, she was to make all haste and not wait, and visit five shrines in holy places for the good of his soul. He not only named the places she was to go, but pre-paid her expenses for all the trips.

Our widow was instructed to not wait at home and observe the usual grieving practices, she was to leave right away! He felt that he hadn't made amends for his sins at these places personally, and so it was very urgent that his widow was to go post haste.

What could she do but pack her bags and comply? ... and here she was, a newly single woman out seeing the world and not a person could censure her for it. It was her husband's wish. She absolutely could not refuse.

Medieval ampulla like this one from my collection, which you can see here in The Gilbert Collection, were favourite pilgrimage souvenirs. They contained water blessed from shrines and it was hoped that the water would have protective qualities and cure sickness for those at home who could not travel to the shrines themselves.

In the case that a widow loved her husband dearly, forced travel at the time when she would have preferred to be at home surrounded by her loved ones and family, would perhaps have been just awful. In the case that it was an arranged marriage or the husband had not been a kind man, perhaps a trip away might have saved her the effort of pretending to grieve.

False grieving was commented on by clergymen who wrote that some widows force pretend tears at the funeral whilst at the same time looking for a new husband before the old is in the ground or, and this is a double edged sword here, wailing extensively because the husband has died and the widow and children have no source of income and no means to live without him.

Honestly, this is a legitimate concern, but was interpreted by some as being selfish. Thoughts should be firmly directed on the deceased, not on herself, was the feeling.

Without a doubt, one of the most famous of single medieval women who travelled is our literary Prioress, a creation of 14th century writer, Chaucer. An illumination of her can be seen here.

Her character inspired by a actual historical person, and the description of her lavish personal accoutrements and love of the finer things in life, and we find her in visiting dioces records where the nuns are furiously complaining about Eglentyne.

Whilst Chaucer's Madame Eglantine was a composite figure of some of the best and worst things associated with nuns at this time, our Eglentyne, the third daughter of a well-to-do person, became a nun at the tender age of fifteen and lived a reasonably civil life for ten years or so before being promoted to Prioress.

And this is where she got unruly.

The nuns under her were very unhappy. She was selling wood to outsiders, selling off the best silver spoons, dressing like a secular women, wearing far too much jewellery and taking so many trips outside their cloistered walls, that it was sending the establishment broke.

For more information about single medieval women who travelled, there's a chapter in my book, the Secret Lives of Single Medieval Women, out in most countries now or available directly from Mango Publishing in the USA.

Thank you Karen and Michael, my local Stones Corner bookshop for having me as their Author On The Sidewalk today! A big THANK YOU to everyone who stopped for a chat or bought books or both!

Books@Stones supports Australian authors and stocks a bunch of other cool things (the native animal puppets are so cute), games, and funky book related merch.

See you again here for a Book Event Night in the coming months!

In the Middle Ages, many men had many feelings about things that really were none of their business, like girls laughing. Guibert de Nogent was just one of many who felt young ladies should be ashamed about feeling good about themselves.

This Saturday come down to Books at Stones at Stones Corner and say hi!!

The promo ad Mango Publishing is running for the release of The Secret Lives of Single
Medieval Women, so I'm guessing it's out in the States now too! I absolutely love it and would have loved to have those few words as the subheading of the book instead of the long one which I have.

Someone has reported Amazon au as being out of stock, and I'll check that out tonight when I'm home from work.

— with Mango Publishing.

Mother's Day is Next Sunday in Australia and it's OUT NOW!

More! Books! Are! Here!

For everyone who missed out at the Book Launch and last weeks Reenactor Market... more copies of my latest book, The Secret Lives of Single Medieval Women is in my hot little hands!! Signed copies with free bookmarks have been delivered to the Abbey Museum of Art And Archaeology gift shop this morning!

Reenactors! If you want some Easter reading, I have copies to CLICK & COLLECT IN PERSON from both AROW and Phoenix Phestival on my Square Shop! Select the COLLECT IN BRISBANE tab when paying and add your name in the delivery notes so I know who to reserve. If you're a friend and want one before then, you can collect from my house or from my work. Just ask.

This morning I'm packing up book orders and I can't express how truly thrilled I am to have all your support! You are the BEST and I appreciate you all!

I won't launch spam you, so one last one because it's the very "I'm Doing The Things at The Place!" and I'm just so very, very excited!

Book signing of the Secret Lives of Single Medieval Women at the Abbey Museum of Art and Archaeology. Thank you to Mango Publishing for getting a few books my way for our special day!

I made a Museum treasure hunt!

A few weeks ago I had my official book launch for The Secret Lives of Single Medieval Women at the Abbey Museum of Art & Archaeology, and we had a short speech, lots of scrumptious food and I made this fun Scavenger Hunt for the Museum and Art Gallery for guests to really have a closer look at the displays!

While not all items are medieval, they are all things associated with the life of a single woman!

Here's our item card that I made! Obviously, you can't collect them. It was a find-and-photograph and first one back won a prize!

While not all items are medieval, they are all things associated with the life of a single woman! Writing implements, dress accessories, devotional literature and even the much beloved pet, the small white, fluffy dog! What might a woman do with a monk? Why, confess! (although players had lots of fun suggestions of things to do with monks! naughty! Naughty!)

Here's our item card that I made! Obviously, you can't collect them. It was a find-and-photograph and first one back won a prize!

The hunt itself was extremely successful with players racing around the museum and participants helping each other out with wild waving of arms saying "That way! That way!" and even museum staff dropping clues as to which cases to look in! All in all, much merriment was had, with people reporting that it was a lot more fun than they thought it would be.

The absolute funny part is that one of the items, the buckle and chape, was in a case which was out of display due to some water damage from a recent storm, and since people couldn’t see the exact item I had in mind, they were frantically looking for anything which might have been it. Answers included spotting a buckle on a suit or armour, in a painting, and on the clothes they were wearing themselves!

At the conclusion, there were two back at the same time with everything ticked off, so I decided that a runner up prize was in order and everyone left happy!

Book launch photos from "The Secret Lives of Single Medieval Women" on Saturday at the Abbey Museum of Art and Archaeology in the new cafe are now up on social media but here's my favourite one: the obligatory Author At The Book Table snap!

It was an absolutely wonderful event and it was a great opportunity for me to gather family, friends, colleagues and enthusiastic supporters all together for a celebration. Guests enjoyed the delicious catering the Abbey Museum events are well-known for, a short but lively talk about the making of the book and a guided tour of the new Art Gallery by Senior Curator Michael Strong. For the more adventurous, we had a Single Lady Scavenger Hunt within the museum and art gallery itself to find and photograph a number of historical lady items which a single woman might have used in her life!

A huge thank you to everyone who came and especially for the Abbey staff who made this little event so lovely!

Thank you also to Nate at Mango Publishing for getting a few books my way for our special day!

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Rosalie's Medieval Woman

Author Things, Medieval Website & Sewing Tutorials

March 2026

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Rosalie Gilbert

Author & Medieval History Enthusiast

Entries tagged with book

Books at Key Lime!

Single Medieval Women at Key Lime

LYBD 2026

Hildegarde von Bingam's childbirth advice

Audio book in progress

Christine de Pizan on Educating Women

Books at Newcastle 2025

Book event cancelled

Single Medieval Women talk in Auslan!

I'm a Hot New Release

Single Medieval Widows Travelled

Book Signing at Sones Corner

Guibert de Nogent has feelings.

Book signing!

Promo for Single Women

Mother's Day

Single Medieval Womenb

Book Launch at the Museum

Museum Treasure Hunt!

The Big Day: Book Launch!