Dr Eleanor Jackson

A photo of Ellie Jackson before the King's Tower.
Position
Curator of Illuminated Manuscripts, Western Heritage Collections
Specialism
Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts
Department
Collections

Eleanor Jackson gained her PhD in History of Art at the University of York in 2017, where her thesis focused on Insular pocket gospel books. She joined the British Library in 2018 as Curator of Illuminated Manuscripts in the medieval manuscripts section. She is an editor and regular contributor to the British Library’s Medieval Manuscripts blog. In 2022 she was co-curator of the British Library exhibition Gold: 50 Spectacular Manuscripts from around the World. 

Publications

Books

Eleanor Jackson, The Lindisfarne Gospels: Art, History & Inspiration (London: British Library, 2022).

Eleanor Jackson, Annabel Teh Gallop and Kathleen Doyle (eds), Gold: Spectacular Manuscripts from Around the World (London: British Library, 2022).

Claire Breay and Joanna Story with Eleanor Jackson (eds), Manuscripts in the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Cultures and Connections (Dublin: Four Courts, 2021). 

Articles

'A Gold Girdle Book and its Connection with Anne Boleyn', eBLJ (2022), Article 11.

'Pursuing the Percys: the original owners of the Percy Psalter-Hours', Journal of Medieval History, 48:4 (2022), 524-45.

'Reading the way to the Heavenly Jerusalem in the Book of Armagh', Peritia, 32 (2021), 97-114. 

PhD Thesis

To hold infinity in the palm of your hand: the Insular pocket gospel books re-evaluated, PhD thesis, University of York (2017). 

Blogposts (selected)

Chi-rho pages for Christmas (21 December 2022)

The man with the golden bulla (18 August 2022)

African kings on medieval and Renaissance maps (14 July 2022)

Fact-checking ‘Anne Boleyn’s’ girdle book (14 June 2022)

We’re going on a bear hunt (5 May 2022)

Antoine de Lonhy and the Saluces Hours (19 October 2021)

700th anniversary of the death of Dante (14 September 2021)

Miniature books (21 July 2021)

Medieval killer rabbits (16 June 2021)

Great medieval bake off: Lent edition (30 March 2021)

Charles d'Orléans, earliest known Valentine? (14 February 2021)

Great medieval bake off: Christmas edition (21 December 2020)

900 years since the White Ship disaster (25 November 2020)

Byland Abbey ghost stories: a guide to medieval ghosts (29 October 2020)

Great medieval bake off (22 September 2020)

Digitisation of the Sherborne Missal (27 August 2020)

Ludicrous figures in the margin (8 August 2020)

The St Albans Benefactors' Book: precious gifts and colourful characters (27 May 2020)

Exultet rolls: celebrating the return of the light (11 April 2020)