The Index of Middle English Prose: Handlist XXIV

The Index of Middle English Prose: Handlist XXIV
Author: Paul Acker
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2023-04-04
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1843846918

Handlist to the rich collection of manuscripts contained in five major libraries across New York, giving a full account of their provenance. This volume provides detailed descriptions of Middle English prose materials found in the Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscripts Library, The Pierpont Morgan Library, The New York Public Library, The New York Academy of Medicine Library, and New York University Bobst Library (Special Collections). The manuscripts tend to be less well known than those in English libraries, with overlooked texts such as the Pseudo-Hildegard Anti-Mendicant Prophecy; The Book of Palmistry; a subject index of legal statutes; culinary and medical recipes; and English instructions to Latin prayers in Books of Hours. Other manuscripts of note include Trevisa's translation of De proprietatibus rerum by Bartholomaeus Anglicus, used as a copy-text for Wynkyn de Worde's first edition printed ca. 1495; and deluxe illustrated manuscripts of The Pilgrimage of the Soul and Ordinances of Chivalry. The introduction to the volume highlights the particular interests of the various collectors and the influences and characteristics underpinning their acquisitions. All but one of the manuscripts described from Columbia University were acquired by George A. Plimpton (1855-1936), whose firm, Ginn and Co., published spelling books. His collection records an interest in the history of education, with MS 258, a primer probably compiled for an English schoolchild, being a highlight. John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) specialized in expensive, illustrated manuscripts, aided in his purchases by Belle da Costa Greene, who became the first director of the Morgan Library as a public institution under J.P. Morgan, Jr. Curt F. Bühler became the Keeper of Printed Books at the Morgan in 1934, bequeathing to the Library the manuscripts that he had bought over the years. James Lenox and John Jacob Astor established the New York Public Library, with Lenox donating two Wycliffite Bibles and Astor a third. The New York Academy of Medicine owns two manuscripts relating to the work of the French surgeon Guy de Chauliac.

The Index of Middle English Prose: Handlist XXV

The Index of Middle English Prose: Handlist XXV
Author: DR NIAMH. PATTWELL
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Total Pages: 372
Release: 2024-06-18
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1843847205

Handlist to manuscripts in Trinity College Dublin, covering all 79 Middle English prose manuscripts and indexing more than 539 separate items The manuscripts in Trinity College Dublin are predominantly from the library of Archbishop James Ussher (1581-1656). A well-known bibliophile of the sixteenth century, he was also primate of All Ireland and fellow and professor of Trinity College. Following some movement of the collection, it was eventually returned to Trinity College after the Restoration, at the behest of Charles II. It is a significant collection, both in national and international terms, with over 600 manuscripts, 79 of which contain Middle English prose. Among the manuscripts in the collection are several Wycliffite Bibles, and collections of sermons and tracts, some of them unique copies. The collection also contains writings by Richard Rolle, Walter Hilton and William Flete, and copies of Thomas à Kempis's Imitation of Christ, as well as the Pore Caitif and The Cloud of Unknowing, both of which are anonymous. There are several copies of the Brut chronicle, two of which (MSS 489 and 505) are illuminated, translations of Giraldus Cambrensis's Expugnacio Hibernica, and a copy of Robert Bale's Chronicle of London, 1189-1461. Also of note are the various collections of recipes - medical, culinary and alchemical. Dictionary-style items demonstrate the trilingual nature of the Medieval period, with single words being offered in English alongside Anglo-Norman and/or Latin words, or as marginal glosses. Fifteenth-century instructions for the coronation of a King or Queen, hidden among some later material, as well as other unidentified heraldic pieces, suggest that some of the manuscripts may be associated with the office of the Ulster King of Arms. The current handlist covers 79 manuscripts, and indexes more than 539 separate items, offering a significant contribution to the understanding of the cultural world of the Medieval period.

The Index of Middle English Prose, Handlist IX

The Index of Middle English Prose, Handlist IX
Author: L. M. Eldredge
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Total Pages: 200
Release: 2007
Genre: Literary Collections
ISBN: 9781843841432

A catalogue of Middle English texts, largely relating to heraldry and the sciences of the time.

Re-using Manuscripts in Late Medieval England

Re-using Manuscripts in Late Medieval England
Author: Hannah Ryley
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2022-08-16
Genre: Book industries and trade
ISBN: 1914049063

A fresh appraisal of late medieval manuscript culture in England, examining the ways in which people sustained older books, exploring the practices and processes by which manuscripts were crafted, mended, protected, marked, gifted and shared.

The Index of Middle English Prose Handlist VI

The Index of Middle English Prose Handlist VI
Author: Oliver S. Pickering
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Total Pages: 108
Release: 2007-08
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9781843841487

This volume contains indexes to a university library, a monastic library, two cathedral libraries, a diocesan library and three record offices. Outstanding among the manuscripts are two Wycliffite New Testaments and John Mirk's popular sermon collection 'The Festial'.

The Stripping of the Altars

The Stripping of the Altars
Author: Eamon Duffy
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 785
Release: 2022-07-12
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 030026514X

This prize-winning account of the pre-Reformation church recreates lay people’s experience of religion, showing that late-medieval Catholicism was neither decadent nor decayed, but a strong and vigorous tradition. For this edition, Duffy has written a new introduction reflecting on recent developments in our understanding of the period. “A mighty and momentous book: a book to be read and re-read, pondered and revered; a subtle, profound book written with passion and eloquence, and with masterly control.”—J. J. Scarisbrick, The Tablet “Revisionist history at its most imaginative and exciting. . . . [An] astonishing and magnificent piece of work.”—Edward T. Oakes, Commonweal “A magnificent scholarly achievement, a compelling read, and not a page too long to defend a thesis which will provoke passionate debate.”—Patricia Morison, Financial Times “Deeply imaginative, movingly written, and splendidly illustrated.”—Maurice Keen, New York Review of Books Winner of the Longman-History Today Book of the Year Award

Women's Healthcare in the Medieval West

Women's Healthcare in the Medieval West
Author: Monica H. Green
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 419
Release: 2024-10-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 1040246680

In this collection of seven major essays (one of them published here for the first time), Monica Green argues that a history of women's healthcare in medieval western Europe has not yet been written because it cannot yet be written - the vast majority of texts relating to women's healthcare have never been edited or studied. Using the insights of women's history and gender studies, Green shows how historians need to peel off the layers of unfounded assumption and stereotype that have characterized the little work that has been done on medieval women's healthcare. Seen in their original contexts, medieval gynecological texts raise questions of women's activity as healthcare providers and recipients, as well as questions of how the sexual division of labor, literacy, and professionalization functioned in the production and use of medical knowledge on the female body. An appendix lists all known medieval gynecological texts in Latin and the western European vernacular languages.