The Findern manuscript is central to understandings of late medieval English women’s book culture. The manuscript is an idiosyncratic assemblage of Middle English texts, annotations, and notes, which may be compared with other contemporary collections variously known as “household books” or “miscellanies.” Its contents range from canonical works (chiefly the works of Chaucer, Lydgate, Gower, and fifteenth-century authors working the courtly tradition) to the unique secular love lyrics, for which the manuscript is perhaps best known. Within its pages are to be found the names of a surprisingly large number of women, who have been identified as members of Derbyshire gentry families of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It has often been speculated, with much attendant controversy, that women were among the scribes, compilers, and even authors of some of the material found in Findern. As a result, the manuscript has become a test case for theories about medieval English women’s writing and provides invaluable evidence of women’s participation within various types of Middle English textual culture.