Essays bringing out the richness and vibrancy of pre-modern textual
culture in all its variety.
Linne R. Mooney, Emeritus Professor of Palaeography at the University of
York, has significantly advanced the study of later medieval English
book production, particularly our knowledge of individual scribes; this
collection honours her distinguished scholarship and responds to her
wide-ranging research on Middle English manuscripts and texts.
The thirteen essays brought together here take a variety of approaches -
palaeographical, codicological, dialectal, textual, art historical - to
the study of the English medieval book and to the varied environments
(professional, administrative, mercantile, ecclesiastical) where
manuscripts were produced and used during the period 1300-1550.
Acknowledging that books and readers are no respecters of borders, this
collection's geographical scope extends beyond England in the east to
Ghent and Flanders, and in the west to Waterford and the Dublin Pale.
Contributors explore manuscripts containing works by key writers,
including Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gower, John Wyclif, and Walter Hilton.
Major texts whose manuscript traditions are scrutinized include Speculum
Vitae, the Scale of Perfection, the Canterbury Tales, and Confessio
Amantis, along with a wide range of shorter works such as lyric poems,
devotional texts, and historical chronicles. London book-making
activities and the scribal cultures of other cities and monastic centres
all receive attention, as does the book production of personal
miscellanies. By considering both literary texts and the letters,
charters, and writs that medieval scribes produced, in Latin and
Anglo-French as well as English, this collection celebrates Professor
Mooney's influence on the field and presents a holistic sense of
England's pre-modern textual culture.
