The Genesis of Books
Environmental and Technical Studies. Volume II
Edited by Matthew T Hussey Edited by John D Niles
This volume is about the book itself, as shaped and made by medieval scribes and as conditioned by the cultural understandings that were present in the world where those scribes lived. Questions relating to the provenance, compilation, script, function, and use-both medieval and modern-of manuscripts are raised and are resolved in a fresh manner. The focal point of the volume is Anglo-Saxon England, approached as a cultural crossroads east and west, with attention given to English manuscripts produced both before and after the Conquest. The book thus contributes to a reassessment of early English culture as complex, emergent, and multi-stranded. A number of different literary genres and types are explored, ranging from devotional materials (e.g. psalters, sermons, and illustrated gospel books) to texts of a more worldly orientation. A number of plates illustrate the work of particular scribes. While some beautiful codices are showcased, the emphasis falls on plain books written in English, including the Vercelli Book, the Exeter Book, and the Blickling Homilies. Analyses of the history of palaeography and the theory of editing raise the point that whatever we know from old books is conditioned by the tools used to study them.
This volume is about the book itself, as shaped and made by medieval scribes and as conditioned by the cultural understandings that were present in the world where those scribes lived. Questions relating to the provenance, compilation, script, function, and use-both medieval and modern-of manuscripts are raised and are resolved in a fresh manner. The focal point of the volume is Anglo-Saxon England, approached as a cultural crossroads east and west, with attention given to English manuscripts produced both before and after the Conquest. The book thus contributes to a reassessment of early English culture as complex, emergent, and multi-stranded. A number of different literary genres and types are explored, ranging from devotional materials (e.g. psalters, sermons, and illustrated gospel books) to texts of a more worldly orientation. A number of plates illustrate the work of particular scribes. While some beautiful codices are showcased, the emphasis falls on plain books written in English, including the Vercelli Book, the Exeter Book, and the Blickling Homilies. Analyses of the history of palaeography and the theory of editing raise the point that whatever we know from old books is conditioned by the tools used to study them.
Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations List of Illustrations Publications of A. N. Doane Introduction - MATTHEW T. HUSSEY AND JOHN D. NILES The Eastwardness of Things: Relationships between the Christian Cultures of the Middle East and the Insular World - MICHELLE P. BROWN The Wi Dweorh Charms in MS Harley 585: A Union of Text and Voice - KATHERINE E. LYNCH The Fonthill Ghost Word, the Fonthill Thief, and Early West Saxon Scribal Culture - JOHN D. NILES The Blickling Homilies Revisited: Knowable and Probable Uses of Princeton University Library, MS Scheide - JONATHAN WILCOX Four Contiguous Poems in the Exeter Book: A Combined Reading of Homiletic Fragment III, Soul and Body II, Deor, and Wulf and Eadwacer - PATRICK W. CONNER The Inscribed Form of Exeter Maxims and the Layout of Quire XI of the Exeter Book - BRIAN O'CAMB The Vercelli Book Revisited - PETER J. LUCAS The Canterbury Psalter, Christ Church, and the Last Old English Psalter Gloss - MATTHEW T. HUSSEY The Beginnings of the Middle English Secular Lyric: Texts, Music, Manuscript Context - KARL REICHL Old English Manuscripts, their Scribes, and their Punctuation - DONALD SCRAGG The Good, the Bad, the Ugly: Old English Manuscripts and their Physical Description - ELAINE M. TREHARNE Editorial Certainty and the Editor's Choice - TIM WILLIAM MACHAN Notes on Contributors Plates Index of Manuscripts Cited Index of Modern Scholars Cited General Index
- Edited by Matthew T Hussey
- Edited by John D Niles
Other Titles in this Series
Sacred Sites and Holy Places
Exploring the Sacralization of Landscape through Time and Space
Volume 11
Poetics of Wonder
Testimonies of the New Christian Miracles in the Late Antique Latin World
Volume 31
The Crisis of the Oikoumene
The Three Chapters and the Failed Quest for Unity in the Sixth-Century Mediterranean
Volume 14
The Beginning of Scandinavian Settlement in England
The Viking 'Great Army' and Early Settlers, c. 865-900
Volume 29
Text, Image, Interpretation
Studies in Anglo-Saxon Literature and its Insular Context in Honour of Eamonn O Carragain
Volume 18
Settlements and Strongholds in Early Medieval England
Texts, Landscapes, and Material Culture
Volume 45
Duelling with the Past
Medieval Authors and the Problem of the Christian Era (c. 990-1135)
Volume 21
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