The Material Poetics of the Cambridge Songs

By (author) Katja Weidner

Book cover: The Material Poetics of the Cambridge Songs

Extent: 350, 310 pages

Publisher: Brepols Publishers

Subjects: Literary Studies, Medieval Studies

Series: Publications of the Journal of Medieval Latin

Series volume number: 19

Language: English

Paperback (Published)

(February 2026)

ISBN: 9782503619453

Price: $144.00

On back order

A material philological interpretation of the Cambridge Songs that provides a glimpse into the Latin lyric practice of the eleventh century.


The Cambridge Songs is the only Medieval Latin lyric collection compiled between the Carolingian period and the twelfth century. As such it forms an important piece in the puzzling history of medieval songbooks. Of even greater interest is the happenstance that these songs do not survive in a separate volume by themselves but are embedded in the multiple-text manuscript Cambridge, University Library, MS Gg. 5.35 (mid-eleventh century, St. Augustine, Canterbury [?]) and are thus transmitted alongside Late Antique and Carolingian poetry, riddles and medical excerpts. This book offers the first interpretation of the songs from the perspective of material philology, examining both codex and lyric collection in terms of compilation, and the poems in terms of their textual variants and arrangement within the collection. Embracing the materiality of the collection in this way affords unique insights into eleventh-century lyric practices.

  • By (author) Katja Weidner