Medieval Studies Commons^™

Poets And Scribes In Late Medieval England: Essays On Manuscripts And Meaning In Honor Of Susanna Fein, Michael Johnston, Kathryn Kerby-Fulton, Derek Pearsall

Festschriften, Occasional Papers, and Lectures

This collection of essays, inspired by Susanna Fein’s remarkable breadth and range, reflects upon her deep commitment to unpacking how we can use manuscript evidence to recover the voices of medieval poets in their original reading environments. Drawing upon her critical insights, this volume gathers contributions from scholars whose own research is indebted to Fein’s enduring contributions. From seasoned veterans of Middle English studies to mid-career scholars to emerging voices within the field, this book brings together essays by eleven scholars indebted to Fein’s work, ranging across Middle English manuscripts, lyrics, Chaucer, Pearl, devotional poetry, scribal culture, multilingualism, gender, …

Takamiya Ms 23, Its Exemplar, And The Editio Princeps Of Piers Plowman, Ian Cornelius, J. Eric Ensley

English: Faculty Publications and Other Works

New Haven, Beinecke Library, MS Takamiya 23 is a mid sixteenth-century copy of the B Version of Piers Plowman, distinguished by pervasive linguistic modernization. The manuscript derives from a source very similar to that used by Robert Crowley for the editio princeps, a textual affiliation that remains unexplained. In their critical edition, George Kane and E. Talbot Donaldson collated Takamiya 23 in full but did not print its unique variant readings and the manuscript has not figured in recent textual scholarship on Piers Plowman. This neglect has led to some conclusions that should be revisited, particularly regarding …

Reimagining History Dataset 3.0, Michelle R. Warren, Neil Weijer

Other Faculty Materials

The Middle English prose Brut chronicle survives in nearly two hundred manuscripts. This corpus has been the subject of extensive study for more than a hundred years. The most recent research, however, has turned out to be the most fragile. In 2017, the multiyear digital humanities project “Imaging History: Perspectives on Late Medieval Vernacular Historiography” disappeared from the live Internet, only a decade after its publication. Shortly afterwards, we began a project called "Re-Imagining History"--to create a new dataset of information about the Brut manuscript corpus and learn how digital infrastructure might shape the production and preservation of historical data. …

Tolkien, Manuscripts, And Dialect, Edward Risden

Journal of Tolkien Research

Study of languages, names, and dialects may have been the greatest motivating factor in Tolkien's scholarship and his fiction: he found in every name (and even in every word) a story to unearth. Clear connections appear between the scholarly vector that connects his investigations into the Gawain-poet (his location and language), the Ancrene Riwle, and locating the linguistic variants in The Reeve's Tale, for instance, with the creation of the various speech patterns in The Lord of the Rings. Beyond the obvious examples of the Elvish languages Tolkien created, the Westron-Hobbiton dialect that Sam uses, variants among …

The Text Of The "Abc Of Aristotle" In The ‘Winchester Anthology’, Ian Cornelius

English: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The Middle English ABC of Aristotle is an alliterative abecedary poem that survives in fifteen manuscript copies dating between the mid-fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. The most eccentric copy, bearing the greatest number of unique textual variants, is in London, British Library, Additional 60577, a commonplace book and miscellany of verse and prose known today as the ‘Winchester Anthology’. The Winchester copy of the ABC of Aristotle is distinguished from all others by changes to vocabulary, idiom, and prosody. The result is a unique redaction, illustrating the kind of literary composition that could be expected to grow out of late …

Divining Gospel. Oracles Of Interpretation In A Syriac Manuscript Of John, Jeff Childers

Graduate School of Theology

Ancient manuscripts of John’s Gospel containing hermeneiai have long puzzled scholars, provoking debate about their origins, purpose, and use. The fragmentary nature of the early evidence has impeded progress towards a better understanding of these specialized books. The present study shows that these books are "Divining Gospels"—editions of John’s Gospel incorporating lot divination materials for use in fortune-telling. The study centers on material presented here for the first time: the text and translation of a unique sixth-century Syriac manuscript, the earliest and most complete example of a hermeneia Gospel. An analysis of the Syriac along with evidence from Greek, Coptic, …

Remix The Medieval Manuscript: Experiments With Digital Infrastructure, Laura Braunstein, Michelle R. Warren, Baylauris Byrnesim

Dartmouth Library Staff Publications

Remix the Manuscript: A Chronicle of Digital Experiments is a collaborative research project that takes up this challenge. It brings together academics, librarians, technologists, conservators, and students to study the many permutations of a single manuscript—a fifteenth-century Middle English prose chronicle of Great Britain, commonly referred to as the “Prose Brut.” Our project raises fundamental questions about the digital research environment. How is today’s code configuring tomorrow’s historical knowledge? How do digital technologies affect our access to and understanding of material culture? By investigating these broad questions through the example of one manuscript, we define a limited yet infinitely …

Hell In Hand: Fear And Hope In The Hellmouths Of The Hours Of Catherine Of Cleves, Stephanie Lish

Theses and Dissertations

This paper is an attempt to investigate how well the borders and miniatures of The Hours of Catherine of Cleves facilitated the method of meditation recommended by Gerard Zerbolt of Zutphen and therefore was a useful tool in Catherine’s search for eternal salvation.

Benefits Of The International Image Interoperability Framework (Iiif) Featuring Medieval Palimpsest Manuscripts, Lisa Mcaulay

Digital Initiatives Symposium

The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) is a community that develops shared application programming interfaces (APIs), or technical standards, for interoperability between digital image repositories. The IIIF specifications aim to give scholars an unprecedented level of uniform and rich access to image-based resources hosted around the world, with partners from national and state libraries, research institutions, museums, archives, software firms, and other groups working with digital image repositories and resources. The IIIF has grown from the community and relies on active participation and discussion to develop, cultivate and document shared technologies, such as image servers and web clients, that provide …

Situating Digital Archives, Michelle R. Warren

Dartmouth Scholarship

This essay is the introduction to an essay collection about the Middle English Prose Brut manuscript purchased by Dartmouth College in 2006. I consider how the competing pressures of access and preservation condition scholarship in medieval studies. I suggest several analogies between the digital humanities in general, digital philology in medieval studies, and the historical practices of medieval writers: hacking, dark archive, and prosthesis.

The Dartmouth Brut: Conservation, Authenticity, Dissemination, Deborah Howe, Michelle R. Warren

Dartmouth Scholarship

This essay describes the conservation process of the Dartmouth Brut manuscript: Dartmouth College, Rauner Special Collections Library, MS 003183. The format alternates between the observations and descriptions of the conservator, Deborah Howe, and those of medievalists Michelle Warren. The essay includes photos of Deborah's process in making a fragile fifteenth-century manuscript useable in the twenty-first century.

Antiphonal [Hu 17]

Medieval Manuscripts

• Country of origin: Italy
• Date: 1550
• Citation: Bond, W. H. Supplement to the Census of Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in the United States and Canada, no. 8
• Provenance: McVitty

Miniatures From The Book Of Hours [Hu Codex 1]

Medieval Manuscripts

Twelve miniatures from the Book of Hours [HU Codex 1]: John the Evangelist (leaf 16a), Pentecost (leaf 24a), Crucifixion (32a), Annunciation (leaf 43a), Visitation (Mary to Elizabeth) (leaf 55a), Nativity (leaf 69a), Annunciation to the Shepherds (leaf 73b), Adoration of the Magi (leaf 78a), Presentation in the Temple (leaf 92a), Flight into Egypt (96b), David and Goliath (111a), and Office of the Dead (leaf 135b).

• Country of origin: France
• Date: ca. 1490
• Citations: Bond, W. H. Supplement to the Census of Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in the United States and Canada, no. 2
• Provenance: McVitty
• miniatures, illumination, decorative borders

Antiphonal [Manuscript Leaf, Hu 1]

Medieval Manuscripts

• Country of origin: Flanders (Belgium)
• Date: 1485
• Citations: Bond, W. H. Supplement to the Census of Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in the United States and Canada, no. 7.
• Provenance: McVitty (Ege)
• Other: Includes neumes, red and blue lettering and decoarations, historiated initial, and border images.

Processional [Hu 9]

Medieval Manuscripts

• Country of origin: Germany
• Date: ca. 1475
• Citations: unknown
• Provenance: unknown

Antiphonal [Hu Codex 4]

Medieval Manuscripts

• Country of origin: Italy
• Date: ca. 1450
• Citations: Bond, W. H. Supplement to the Census of Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in the United States and Canada, no. 4.
• Provenance: McVitty

Antiphonal [Hu 2]

Medieval Manuscripts

• Country of origin: Italy
• Date: ca. 1440
• Dimensions: ca. 560 x 410 mm
• Citations: none
• Provenance: Otto Ege; S. Herbert McVitty
• Other: neumes, red and blue lettering and decoration

Breviary [Hu Codex 3]

Medieval Manuscripts

• Country of origin: Italy
• Date: 15th century
• Citations: Bond, W. H. Supplement to the Census of Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in the United States and Canada, no.1
• Provenance: McVitty

Breviary [Manuscript Leaf, Hu 3]

Medieval Manuscripts

• Country of origin: France
• Date: ca. 1350
• Citations: Bond, W. H. Supplement to the Census of Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in the United States and Canada, no. 9
• Provenance: McVitty (Ege)
• Other: red and blue lettering and decorations, illumination. Note written at top of side 1: "Following the octave of Easter" [translation].

A breviary is a book containing the hymns, offices, and prayers for the canonical hours, to be recited daily by clerics in religious orders.

Missal (Hu 6)

Medieval Manuscripts

• Country of origin: Germany.
• Date: ca. 1320.
• Dimensions: 450 x 310 mm.
• Citations: Bond & Faye, no. 12.
• Provenance: Otto Ege, S. Herbert McVitty.

Bible. Old Testament. 1 Chronicles 28:21-2 Chronicles 1:3 [Manuscript Leaf Hu15a]

Medieval Manuscripts

• Country of origin: N. France (or Flemish)
• Date: ca. 1300
• Citations: none
• Provenance: unknown
• Other: historiated initials, decorative borders

Bible. Old Testament. Joshua, 17-18 [Manuscript Leaf Hu 16]

Medieval Manuscripts

• Country of origin: France
• Date: ca. 1300
• Citations: none
• Provenance: Virginia Webb, Class of 1933.
• Other: red and blue decorations

Bible. Old Testament. Psalm 106:9-112:4 [Manuscript Leaf Hu15b]

Medieval Manuscripts

• Country of origin: N. France
• Date: ca. 1300
• Citations: none
• Provenance: unknown
• Other: Historiated initals, decorative borders

Psalter [Manuscript Leaf Hu 13]

Medieval Manuscripts

• Country of origin: France
• Date: ca. 1285
• Citations: none
• Provenance: Virginia Webb, Hollins Class of 1933
• Other: Red and blue decorations and lettering, Illumination

Missal [Manuscript Leaf, Hu 5b]

Medieval Manuscripts

• Country of origin: Beauvais, France
• Date: 1285
• Citations: Bond, W. H. Supplement to the Census of Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in the United States and Canada, no. 11
• Provenance: McVitty (Ege)
• Other: red and blue lettering and decoration, illumination, neumes, historiated initial

Missal [Manuscript Leaf, Hu 5a]

Medieval Manuscripts

• Country of origin: Beauvais, France
• Date: 1285
• Citations: Bond, W. H. Supplement to the Census of Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in the United States and Canada, no. 11.
• Provenance: McVitty (Ege)
• Other: red and blue lettering and decoration, illumination, neumes

Breviary [Hu 7]

Medieval Manuscripts

• Country of origin: Germany
• Date: ca. 1225
• Citations: Bond, W. H. Supplement to the Census of Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in the United States and Canada, no. 13.
• Provenance: McVitty

Missal [Manuscript Leaf, Hu 4]

Medieval Manuscripts

• Country of origin: Germany
• Date: ca. 1150
• Citations: Bond, W. H. Supplement to the Census of Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in the United States and Canada, no. 10
• Provenance: McVitty (Ege)
• Other: Includes neumes [music notation]

A missal is a book containing all that is said or sung at mass during the entire year.

To learn more about this item, please contact Isabel Folck, Archivist and Special Collections Librarian at [email protected].