Opening up Middle English manuscripts : literary and visual approaches /

Designed to serve as an introduction to the many aspects of Middle English (ME) manuscript studies, this beautiful, practical volume models how manuscript studies has developed as a discipline since the early 1980s. Kerby-Fulton (Univ. of Notre Dame), Hilmo (Univ. of Victoria, Canada), and Olson (Thompson Rivers Univ., Canada) demonstrate how to undertake research through the study of manuscripts and provide ample foundational and introductory materials to facilitate such research. Topics include transcription versus edition, the basic scripts most often used in ME manuscripts, chapters on textual study, readership of ME romances, the interplay of illumination and the text illuminated, marginalia and annotation, and literary texts in medieval religious houses. The volume offers excellent illustrations of all the manuscripts discussed.Coverage includes Chaucer, Langland, Hoccleve, the Gawain Poet, Julian of Norwich, and Margery Kempe. Throughout the chapters, the authors bring a holistic view to manuscript studies, considering the text in relation to the entire manuscript, the culture in which the manuscript was created, the scholarly issues within the literary study, the script and scribe(s), and the larger history of the time. Lavishly illustrated, well-documented, and with a glossary of key manuscript terms, this volume belongs in every collection of Middle English literature. It serves as an outstanding introduction for students and a source of inspiration for scholars. Summing Up: Essential. Lower-level undergraduates and above; general readers. E. M. Bentsen Baylor University Libraries