Prayers or Meditation

Although, history remembers her as the sixth and final wife of the infamous King Henry VIII, what many don't know is that Katherine Parr was the first English Queen to publish a book under her own name according to tudorhistory.org. Finished in 1545, Prayers or Meditations was the first of two books that were published in the queens name. Hampton Court Palace's website states that Parr was a “passionate supporter of religious reform” and that she enjoyed “discussing new reformist ideas”. These beliefs can be seen in her writings as she analyzes a variety of radical protestant ideas. 

The familiar layout of this first page of Prayers or Meditation contains a large heading and consistent baseline for the body paragraph of text. Furthermore, the page structure of books from the Middle Ages directly impact the way our books are organized today.  

The works of women are often overlooked by design historians however, they are crucial to the development of graphic design as an art.