Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts and their Heritage

First published in 1998, this volume brings together some of the best recent work on the period before and after the Norman Conquest and makes an irresistible case for a number of fundamental revisions in our understanding of the culture of Anglo-Saxon and Norman England. Combining the use of novel techniques such as digital image processing with the best current practice in textual and iconographic study, this volume broadens the scope and applicability of manuscript studies, showing, for example, the falsity of prevailing notions of the vitality and status of the native English tongue after the Conquest. The essays combine to make a coherent and persuasive demonstration of the benefits of not remaining bound to the physical artifact but rather connecting codicology with practical and theoretical applications within manuscript studies and other historical disciplines.

1. Gloss and Illustration: Two Means to the Same End? Gernot R. Wieland, University of British Columbia. 2. Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 57 and its Anglo-Saxon Users. Timothy Graham, Medieval Institute, University of Western Michigan. 3. Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 162. D.G. Scragg, University of Manchester. 4. The Prefatory Matter of London, British Library, Cotton Vitellius E. xviii. Phillip Pulsiano, Villanova University. 5. The Conybeare-Madden Collation of Thorkelin’s Beowulf. Kevin S. Kiernan, University of Kentucky. 6. Reading the C-Text: The After-Lives of London, British Library, Cotton Tiberius B. i. Katherine O’Brien O’Keeffe, University of Notre Dame. 7. Lay Literacy in Anglo-Saxon England and the Development of the Chirograph. Kathryn A. Lowe, University of Glasgow. 8. Memorialised Readings: Manuscript Evidence for Old English Homily Composition. Mary Swan, University of Leeds. 9. An Episode in the Medieval Afterlife of the Caligula Troper. E.C. Teviotdate, J. Paul Getty Museum. 10. The Dates and Origins of Three Twelfth-Century Old English Manuscripts. Elaine M. Treharne, University of Leicester. 11. The Ghost of Asser. Andrew Prescott, The British Library.