Publisher Description

The scholarship and teaching of manuscript studies has been transformed by digitisation, rendering previously rarefied documents accessible for study on a vast scale. The Cambridge Companion to Medieval British Manuscripts orientates students in the complex, multidisciplinary study of medieval book production and contemporary display of manuscripts from c.600–1500. Accessible explanations draw on key case studies to illustrate the major methodologies and explain why skills in understanding early book production are so critical for reading, editing, and accessing a rich cultural heritage. Chapters by leading specialists in manuscript studies range from explaining how manuscripts were stored, to revealing the complex networks of readers and writers which can be understood through manuscripts, to an in depth discussion on the Wycliffite Bible.

Author Biography

Orietta Da Rold is University Lecturer in the University of Cambridge and Fellow of St John's College. Her publications include The Dd Manuscript: A Digital Edition of Cambridge University Library, MS Dd.4.24 of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (2013) and she has just completed a project entitled From Pulp to Fictions: Paper in Medieval England. Elaine Treharne is Roberta Bowman Denning Professor of Humanities, Professor of English, and Robert K. Packard University Fellow in Undergraduate Education at Stanford University, California, and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, the Royal Historical Society, and the English Association. A qualified archivist, she has published more than thirty books, and sixty articles in early medieval literature and the history of text technologies.

Table of Contents

Introduction. The matter of manuscripts and methodologies Orietta Da Rold and Elaine Treharne; Part I. How Do We Study the Manuscript?: 1. Describing and cataloguing medieval English manuscripts: a checklist Richard Beadle and Ralph Hanna; 2. Reading a manuscript description Donald Scragg; 3. Reading and understanding scripts Julia Crick and Dan Wakelin; 4. Working with images in manuscripts Beatrice Kitzinger; 5. The sum of the book: structural codicology and medieval manuscript culture Ryan Perry; Part II. Why Do We Study the Manuscript?: 6. Networks of writers and readers Elaine Treharne and Orietta Da Rold; 7. The written word: literacy across languages Jane Gilbert and Sara Harris; 8. The Wycliffite Bible Elizabeth Solopova; 9. Editing medieval manuscripts for modern audiences Helen Fulton; 10. Where were books made and kept? Tessa Webber; Part III. Where Do We Study the Manuscript?: 11. Charming the snake: accessing and disciplining the medieval manuscript Sian Echard and Andrew Prescott; 12. The curation and display of digital medieval manuscripts Suzanne Paul; 13. The trade A. S. G. Edwards; Further reading; Index.

Promotional

Explains the methods and knowledge required to understand how, why, and for whom manuscripts were made in medieval Britain.

Promotional "Headline"

Explains the methods and knowledge required to understand how, why, and for whom manuscripts were made in medieval Britain.

Description for Bookstore

This book orientates students in the complex, multidisciplinary study of medieval book production and contemporary display of manuscripts. It illustrates the major methodologies and explains why skills in understanding early book production are so critical for reading, editing, and accessing a rich cultural heritage.

Description for Library

This book orientates students in the complex, multidisciplinary study of medieval book production and contemporary display of manuscripts. It illustrates the major methodologies and explains why skills in understanding early book production are so critical for reading, editing, and accessing a rich cultural heritage.

Details