Archival collections are political spaces: the decisions that govern whose histories are preserved, when, and by whom are not neutral. They reflect the communities that make them. For most of western history queer, trans, and gender non-conforming people were excluded from such communities. Premodern trans experiences went largely unreported and reconstructing such histories relies on the piecing together of ephemeral glimpses. Literary scholars developed tactics and tools to read through the traces, with hugely generative results that highlight the richness of non-normative premodern genders. But how do we move beyond the limits of the trace to uncover a more expansive history of premodern gender non-conformity? This book takes a methodological approach to the question. An experiment in applying trans approaches to the study of the premodern book offers alternatives both for trans histories and for book historical methods. Book Cultures This series provides an expert outlet for short scholarly works focused on the handmade book as an object, and cultures that emerge around it, both in the past and present.

While the concept is firmly rooted in the idea of the manuscript, the series aims to explore the book as a medium in its own right, transcending easy periodization boundaries and capable of functioning as an axis of various cultures. It is not bound to the Eurocentric notion of the medieval, allowing for both a global perspective and innovative comparisons.