"This book investigates writing practices such as graffiti, tattooing and inscriptions on implements, jewellery, clothing and other objects in early modern England. The incidence of graffiti in this period has never been documented as such; the occurrence of tattooing has been unknown; inscribed objects, though often carefully preserved, are not usually considered as literary works.".

"These are writing practices that invite us to imagine a world in which writing and drawing were not fully distinguishable, the page was not an important boundary, and modern assumptions as to what constitutes literacy, either in writing or in reading, were irrelevant.

Juliet Fleming's exploration of these virtually unknown literary artefacts provides a startling new perspective on sixteenth-century culture, one that requires us to re-examine what we thought we knew about writing, literature and their history in England."--BOOK JACKET.