Lindsay Rudge PhD Thesis - University of St Andrews

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
An extended project such as this cannot succeed without the help of a number of
people. I would like to thank, first of all, the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of
Scotland, whose generous support of the first three years of this project enabled me to
undertake it. I would also like to express my gratitude to the Institute of Historical
Research for the award of a Scouloudi Fellowship, and to the British Federation of
Women Graduates for the Marjorie J. Shaw Scholarship.
While undertaking the thesis, I was fortunate to receive the advice and help of a
number of other scholars and library staff. I would like to thank Rosamond McKitterick
for her generous provision of a reference on a grant application, Alex Woolf for some
very helpful discussions of the Columbanian material, and Sally Dixon-Smith and the
Chêne d’Espoir for the hugely important help in finding somewhere to stay in Paris!
Michèle Mulchahey has not only generously shared her expertise on manuscript studies
with me, but most recently has taken over the thankless task of supervising the project.
Claude Sintès, Directeur de Conservation at the Musée de l’Arles Antique, has been
immensely generous with both time and knowledge, and has supplied further information
on some of the Arles inscriptions. I would also like to thank Marc Heijmans, CNRS, for
bringing to my attention several inscriptions from Arles, and for several helpful
discussions of Arlesian topography. I must also thank the members of the Early Middle
Ages Seminar at the IHR for a hugely stimulating and enjoyable discussion of some of
the material contained herein.
I would like to thank the librarians at the Bodleian Library, Oxford; the National
Library of Scotland, Edinburgh; the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, and the Vatican
Library. Particular gratitude must go to Fabienne Martin, Fonds patrimoniaux,
Mediathèque d’Arles, for supplying photocopies of an obscure vita and a very long
manuscript. Jocelyne Deschaux in the Bibliothèque Municipale, Toulouse, and Angelika
Pabel at the Universitätsbibliothek, Würzburg, were especially generous with their
knowledge of the Caesarian manuscripts.
On a personal level, the Department of Mediaeval History has been a stimulating
and friendly place to be for the last four years. Simon Maclean, John Hudson, Chris
Given-Wilson, Angus Stewart, Sally Crumplin, Berta, Audrey and Anne have all
provided support and encouragement. Briony Aitchison, Emily Graham, Jen McRobbie
and Nancy Mitton have all been, at different times, suppliers of nun-jokes, hugs, and food
fit for goddesses. This would all have been a lot less fun without you!
Some thanks must be made separately. Sumi David has been a constant and
amazing friend, codicological advisor and house-mate for more than three years. Julia
Smith has been the most supportive, generous and inspirational supervisor that anyone
could wish for. Lastly, I would like to thank my family, who must have wondered at
times how there could be so much to read and write about nuns, but who have supported
me throughout, regardless.
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