Letters, gifts and messengers: The epistolary strategies of St Radegund

Abstract

This article studies the ways the sixth-century queen and monastic founder Radegund (c.520–87) managed the non-textual elements of communication by letter. While Radegund’s role as a writer and commissioner of letters has been well studied, her efforts as an orchestrator of letter deliveries, gift exchanges and other associated acts of public communication remain under-explored. Drawing on two Merovingian hagiographies, one written c.590–600 by Radegund’s friend and agent Venantius Fortunatus, and another composed shortly after 600 by a fellow nun, Baudonivia, this article offers a new methodological approach to the study of letter-writing in the early Middle Ages.