The York Research Database

This article draws together the theories of practice articulated by Michel de Certeau and recent work on the physiology of reading to argue that early modern women’s reading should be understood as an embodied activity situated within, and affected by, its physical situation. Drawing upon a range of sources, including funeral sermons, diaries, and Helkiah Crooke’s influential Mikrocosmographia, the article demonstrates the interconnectedness of optics and aurality, the psychophysiological basis of memory, and the extent to which the connection between reading and eating should be understood as a physical rather than a figurative phenomenon.