Florence Kingsford Cockerell

[3] She studied at the Central School of Arts and Crafts,[4] where she learned techniques of medieval manuscript illumination, such as applying gold leaf to parchment.

[1] Between 1901 and 1904, she contributed decorative initials (often gold) to a number of limited-edition books published by Essex House Press, each featuring a single long poem.

While there, she produced an illuminated version of an ancient Egyptian text attributed to the pharaoh Akhenaten and translated by Francis Llewellyn Griffith.

[5][8] Again featuring delicate paintings complemented by bold calligraphy, this manuscript is in the collection of the Getty Center, Los Angeles.

[3] In 1916, Cockerell was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, which effectively ended her career as an illuminator and calligrapher because of the degree to which it affected her hand coordination.