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Girding the loins

, –
Past
  • Free
  • Discussion
  • Speech-to-text
  • Hearing loop
Photograph of four people seated in a row at a talk. They are looking up to listen to a speaker who is out of frame.
Library Insights, Michael Bowles. Source: Wellcome Collection. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).

Recording of the event Girding the Loins, which took place on 6 December 2022.

PhD researcher, Kierri Price, describes the cultural and religious significance of a medieval birthing girdle from around 1500 held within Wellcome Collection.

Watch a recording of scientist Dr Sarah Fiddyment, medievalist Kierri Price and conservator Stefania Signorello in conversation with collections specialist Dr Elma Brenner to hear about their research on a medieval English birthing girdle, Ms.632.

Kierri Price will introduce you to medieval birthing girdles and their cultural and religious significance. You will hear how these manuscripts provided physical and emotional support to women in pregnancy and labour.  

Sarah Fiddyment will explain how recent biomolecular research has revealed that Ms.632 was actually used during childbirth at the end of the 15th century.  

Conservator Stefania Signorello will discuss how we preserve these rare items. 

Dates

, –
Past

Need to know

Location

We’ll be in the Forum. To get there, take the lift or stairs up to level 1 and then follow the signs through the ‘Being Human’ gallery.

Speech-to-text

This event will be live-transcribed. The captions will be displayed on a screen in-venue.

Hearing loop

There will be a hearing loop at this event.

For more information, please visit our Accessibility page. If you have any queries about accessibility, please email us at access@wellcomecollection.org or call

Our event terms and conditions

About your contributors

Kierri Price

Speaker

Kierri Price isis a CHASE Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded PhD student jointly at Birkbeck (University of London) and Wellcome Collection. Their research is centred on the manuscripts and artefacts of late medieval England, in particular those that focus on the protection of the body and the soul. 

Sarah Fiddyment

Speaker

Dr Sarah Fiddyment is a biomolecular archaeologist. She is a Research Associate on the European Research Council-funded Beasts to Craft project at the University of Cambridge.  

Black and white photograph of Stefania Signorello.

Stefania Signorello

Speaker

Stefania Signorello ACR is a Conservator at Wellcome Collection. She is co-founder of The Book & Paper Gathering. 

Colour photograph of Dr Elma Brenner.

Elma Brenner

Host

Dr Elma Brenner is a Research Development Specialist who works with the medieval European collections at Wellcome Collection.