The Sir Walter Scott Medal is presented each year to an exceptional individual who has demonstrated lifelong dedication and made an outstanding contribution to the humanities or social sciences. Professor Kathryn Rudy (University of St Andrews) was awarded the RSE Sir Walter Scott Medal for her outstanding contribution to art history, where her capacity for lateral thinking has meant she has been able to examine a large corpus of manuscripts in ways unexplored by previous scholars.
None of this work has taken place in a vacuum, and I so grateful to everyone who has nurtured my work: funders, librarians, cataloguers, editors, publishers, the University of St Andrews for its generous leave enabling me to hike, think and write; and of course my friends, colleagues and students in Scotland and beyond.