Anne Rudloff Stanton loves romance. She loves the way it looks, the way it sounds, and the way it smells—but only when it’s found in the margins of 14th-century books. The professor of Art History and Archaeology describes one example—a small drawing of a man leaving a woman—and she leans forward as if she were talking about a mutual friend of ours. “There’s this long sequence of the story of Moses, who, as you may not know, was married before he married Zipporah,” she begins. “He first married the daughter of the king of Ethiopia.”

Stanton has also researched Isabella of France, a powerful queen who forced her husband to abdicate his throne in favor of their son. Because the boy was too young to assume the kingship, she ruled in his place for about three years. Stanton is learning much about Isabella by looking at her things, specifically the narrative art in the margins of her books.