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Inside the Archives – Books in Exile and the Women who Cared for Them with Jennie Aspinall

Join us for a special session inside Durham University’s archives.  

This event will introduce you to the Canonesses Regular of the Holy Sepulchre, using their amazing rare book collection at Palace Green Library. In 1642, two English women founded an English branch of this religious order with roots going back to the Crusades. As Catholicism was illegal in England at that time, they chose Liège in modern-day Belgium as their base.    

Throughout their history, the community has gone to extraordinary lengths to care for this collection and in December 2018, they took the momentous decision to donate their library and archives to Durham University. As we look at a selection of books from their collection, you will experience a story which touches upon the limits of women’s and religious freedom, as well as the impact of forced migration. But mostly you will discover a community of women whose identity is bound, literally and figuratively, in books. 

Led by Jennie Aspinall, Durham University.