The only currently available anthology of early modern women’s writing to focus exclusively on manuscript material. Recent scholarship has emphasised the importance of manuscript composition and circulation for women in the period Includes a carefully planned combination of well-known and less familiar women writers, making it suitable for use on university courses and as a resource for advanced postgraduates and specialists Each section has a textual and biographical introduction placing the woman writer into her literary and historical context A broad and useful introduction examines the phenomenon of manuscript writing Makes a generous selection of women’s manuscript poetry generally available in the public domain for the first time