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

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.