Fresh examinations of the manuscript which is one of the chief
compendiums of literature in the Middle English period.
Created in London c. 1340, the Auchinleck manuscript (Edinburgh,
National Library of Scotland Advocates MS 19.2.1) is of crucial
importance as the first book designed to convey in the English language
an ambitious range ofsecular romance and chronicle. Evidently made in
London by professional scribes for a secular patron, this tantalizing
volume embodies a massive amount of material evidence as to London
commercial book production and the demand for vernacular texts in the
early fourteenth century. But its origins are mysterious: who were its
makers? its users? how was it made? what end did it serve?
The essays in this collection define the parameters of present-day
Auchinleck studies. They scrutinize the manuscript's rich and varied
contents; reopen theories and controversies regarding the book's making;
trace the operations and interworkings of the scribes, compiler, and
illuminators; teaseout matters of patron and audience; interpret the
contested signs of linguistic and national identity; and assess
Auchinleck's implied literary values beside those of Chaucer. Geography,
politics, international relations and multilingualism become pressing
subjects, too, alongside critical analyses of literary substance.
SUSANNA FEIN is Professor of English at Kent State University and editor
of The Chaucer Review.
Contributors: Venetia Bridges, Patrick Butler, Siobhain Bly Calkin, A.
S. G. Edwards, Ralph Hanna, Ann Higgins, Cathy Hume, Marisa Libbon,
Derek Pearsall, Helen Phillips, Emily Runde, Timothy A. Shonk, Míceál F.
Vaughan.
