The Auchinleck Manuscript: New Perspectives (Manuscript Culture in the British Isles, 7) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1903153786 ISBN 13: 9781903153789

Publisher: York Medieval Press, 2018

Synopsis

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 of secular 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; tease out 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, Miceal F. Vaughan.

About this title

Review:

A weighty and significant publication.. It constitutes essential reading, not only for any serious student of the Auchinleck Ms. and its texts, but also for those interested in medieval romance and in any aspect of medieval ms. culture. It is also an example of an all-too-rare phenomenon: a volume of essays which is, through their interaction and skillful curation, significantly more than the sum of its parts. SCRIPTORIUM Future scholars will need to ground themselves in this volume. ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEWThis collection is a great resource for further scholarship on the Auchinleck manuscript and the treasures it contains. THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW

About this edition

• Publisher: York Medieval Press
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1903153786
• ISBN 13: 9781903153789
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 266
• Editor: Fein Susanna