Immaterial Texts in Late Medieval England
Making English Literary Manuscripts, 1400–1500

A compelling reassessment of the craft practices, cultural conventions and literary attitudes of late medieval English scribes.

Daniel Wakelin (Author)

9781009100588, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 9 June 2022

300 pages
23.4 x 15.7 x 1.8 cm, 0.61 kg

'The author's ability to identify strikingly anomalous details across this sprawling body of material is impressive.' A. S. G. Edwards, Times LIterary Supplement

Daniel Wakelin introduces and reinterprets the misunderstood and overlooked craft practices, cultural conventions and literary attitudes involved in making some of the most important manuscripts in late medieval English literature. In doing so he overturns how we view the role of scribes, showing how they ignored or concealed irregular and damaged parchment; ruled pages from habit and convention more than necessity; decorated the division of the text into pages or worried that it would harm reading; abandoned annotations to poetry, focusing on the poem itself; and copied English poems meticulously, in reverence for an abstract idea of the text. Scribes' interest in immaterial ideas and texts suggests their subtle thinking as craftspeople, in ways that contrast and extend current interpretations of late medieval literary culture, 'material texts' and the power of materials. For students, researchers and librarians, this book offers revelatory perspectives on the activities of late medieval scribes.

1. Prologue: materials, making and manuscripts
2. 'Hele alle maner of schabbis': imagining perfect parchment
3. 'Who by prudence Rule him shal': controlling the layout
4. 'Þe leef torned': turning beyond the page
5. 'Rede . . . and ?e may se': reading plain text
6. 'This is the copy': reproducing the immaterial
7. Conclusions: more than materials.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural history [HBTB], Medieval history [HBLC1], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]