This project is currently under construction with projected timeline for completion in the Spring of 2024.
Re-Opening Up Middle English Manuscripts is digital humanities project designed as an online companion to Opening Up Middle English Manuscripts by Kathryn Kerby-Fulton, Maidie Hilmo & Linda Olson, published by Cornell University Press (2012).
The aim of the project is to provide digital resources for scholars working with Middle English Manuscripts and as a supplement which provides updated reviews of the original subjects discussed in Opening Up Middle English Manuscripts.
Table of Contents [h1]
▾Preface/Summary [h2]
Preface by Kathryn Kerby-Fulton [Linked to Essay]
▾The Front Plates: Transcriptions, Scripts, and Descriptive Analysis for Learning to Read Literary Texts on the Manuscript Page [h2] [click on chapter to expand/show the subsections below]
For full analysis and images that cover pre-2012 scholarship, see Opening Up Middle English Manuscripts: Literary and Visual Approaches [link] (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2012): p. 1 ff.
How to Transcribe Middle English / Kathryn Kerby-Fulton [h3]
Summary: [h4]
[insert 1 sentence summary] (Opening Up, pp. 2-5).
Introduction: The Order of the Plates and Scripts Most Commonly Found in Middle English Literary Texts / Kathryn Kerby-Fulton [h3]
Summary: [h4]
[insert 1 sentence summary] (Opening Up, pp. 6-7).
1. The Land of Cokaygne (British Library, MS Harley 913) / Kathryn Kerby-Fulton [h3]
Summary: [h4]
Extremely short summary: 2-ish sentences (Opening Up, pp. 8-10).
Rereading British Library, MS Harley 913 by Kathryn Kerby-Fulton [Link to Updates Essay]
2. “Ihesu Swete” (Newberry Library, MS 31) / Kathryn Kerby-Fulton [h3]
Summary: [h4]
Extremely short summary: 2-ish sentences (Opening Up, pp. 11-12).
Rereading Newberry Library, MS 31 by Amanda Bohne [Link to Updates Essay]
3. The Pricke of Conscience (Newberry Library, MS 32.9) / Kathryn Kerby-Fulton [h3]
Summary: [h4]
The first booklet of two in Newberry Library, MS 32.6 contains an elegantly decorated copy of The Pricke of Conscience written by a single scribe in a Midlands dialect and an Anglicana formata script. A “handsome medieval collection on the history of the world and its properties,” this manuscript joins The Pricke of Conscience with a Lapidarye and a now lost text called “Rebianus (sic) concerning the beginning of the world” (Opening Up, pp. 13-15).
Rereading Newberry Library, MS 32.9 by Karrie Fuller [Link to Updates Essay]
4. Chaucer’s “Cook’s Tale” (Hg) (National Library of Wales, Peniarth MS 392D, Hengwrt MS 154) / Kathryn Kerby-Fulton [h3]
Summary: [h4]
Extremely short summary: 2-ish sentences (Opening Up, pp. 16-19).
Rereading National Library of Wales, Peniarth MS 392D, Hengwrt MS 154 (Hg) by Kathryn Kerby-Fulton [Link to Updates Essay]
5. Chaucer’s “Cook’s Tale” (Cp) (Corpus Christi College, MS 198) / Kathryn Kerby-Fulton [h3]
Summary: [h4]
Extremely short summary: 2-ish sentences (Opening Up, pp. 16-19).
Rereading Corpus Christi College, MS 198 (Cp) by Amanda Bohne [Link to Updates Essay]
6. Omnis plantacio (formerly The Clergy May Not Hold Property) (Huntington Library, MS HM 503) / Kathryn Kerby-Fulton [h3]
Summary: [h4]
Extremely short summary: 2-ish sentences (Opening Up, pp. 20-22).
Rereading Huntington Library, MS HM 503 by Hannah Zdansky [Link to Updates Essay]
7. Hoccleve ‘s “Chanceon to Somer” and Envoy to Regiment des Princes (Huntington Library, MS HM 111) / Kathryn Kerby-Fulton [h3]
Summary: [h4]
Extremely short summary: 2-ish sentences (Opening Up, pp. 23-25).
Rereading Huntington Library, MS HM 111 by Amanda Bohne [Link to Updates Essay]
8. Langland, Piers Plowman (Bodleian Library, MS Douce 104) / Kathryn Kerby-Fulton
Summary: [h4]
Extremely short summary: 2-ish sentences (Opening Up, pp. 26-28). [h3]
Rereading Bodleian Library, MS Douce 104 by Kathryn Kerby-Fulton [Link to Updates Essay]
9. Sir Degrevant (Cambridge University Library, MS Ff.1.6, Findern MS) / Linda Olson
Summary: [h4]
Extremely short summary: 2-ish sentences (Opening Up, pp. 29-33). [h3]
Rereading Cambridge University Library, MS Ff.1.6, Findern MS by Hannah Zdansky [Link to essay]
10. Wisdom (Folger Shakespeare Library, MS V.a.354, Macro MS) / Linda Olson [h3]
Summary: [h4]
Extremely short summary: 2-ish sentences (Opening Up, pp. 34-37).
Rereading Folger Shakespeare Library, MS V.a.354, Macro MS by Hannah Zdansky [Link to Essay]
▾Chapter 1. Major Middle English Poets and Manuscript Studies, 1300–1450 / Kathryn Kerby-Fulton [h2]
For full analysis and images that cover pre-2012 scholarship, see Opening Up Middle English Manuscripts: Literary and Visual Approaches [link] (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2012): p. 39 ff.
A Brief Overview of Topics Covered in This Chapter (Opening Up, pp. 39-40)
I. BL MS Arundel 292, Archaism, and the Preservation of Alliterative Poetry c. 1300–c. 1450 [h3]
Summary: [h4]
This is a 2-3 sentence summary of the section. The text right below this, in color, will be the title of and link to the essay that provides the updates. The shorter the summary, the better because this Table of Contents is already dense enough (Opening Up, pp. 40-45).
Catchy Essay Title: What’s New in MS Arundel 292 Studies Since 2012? by Kathryn Kerby-Fulton [Link to Essay]
II. BL MS Harley 2253 and Principles of Compilatio, or: Why Read the Harley Lyrics in their Natural Habitat? [h3]
Summary: [h4]
This is a 2-3 sentence summary of the section. The text right below this, in color, will be the title of and link to the essay that provides the updates. The shorter the summary, the better because this Table of Contents is already dense enough (Opening Up, pp. 45-55).
Catchy Essay Title: What’s New in MS Harley 2253 Studies and Scribal Profiling Since 2012? by Richard Fahey [Link to Essay]
III. Gawain and the Medieval Reader: The Importance of Manuscript Ordinatio in a Poem We Think We Know [h3]
Summary: [h4]
This is a 2-3 sentence summary of the section. The text right below this, in color, will be the title of and link to the essay that provides the updates. The shorter the summary, the better because this Table of Contents is already dense enough (Opening Up, pp. 56-64).
Catchy Essay Title: What’s New in Gawain-Manuscript Studies and Editorial Approaches to Emendation Since 2012? by Hannah Zdansky [Link to Essay]
IV. The Rise of English Book Production in Ricardian London: Professional Scribes and Langland’s Piers Plowman [h3]
Summary: [h4]
Using Piers Plowman as a test case, Kerby-Fulton emphasizes how scribes in the London book trade retain rural dialects reflective of their migration to this urban center and how their government jobs result in deep connections between literary and documentary culture. Four key London copies of Piers (Ilchester, Huntington Library MSS HM 137, HM 114, and HM 143) reveal the unparalleled access these scribes had to multiple versions and sometimes, possibly, authorial loose leaves of the poem. These scribes’ editorial and poetic competence can be difficult to tease out from Langland’s own work, creating numerous editorial challenges (Opening Up, pp. 65-79).
Revaluing the London Scribe: What’s New in Piers Plowman Manuscript Studies and Editorial Theory Since 2012? by Karrie Fuller [Link to Essay]
V. Some of the Earliest Attempts to Assemble the Canterbury Tales [h3]
Summary: [h4]
Looking at the earliest and most discussed manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales, this section provides codicological evidence for better understanding Chaucer’s writing process and revision of tale order. In addition to revisiting the identification of Adam Pinkhurst as Chaucer’s own scribe, partly in relation to Jane Roberts’ study, Kerby-Fulton’s evidence suggests that Chaucer composed in rearrangeable, piecemeal booklets. Moreover, reordering the Tales significantly impacts textual meaning as do scribal attempts to fill in glaring gaps such as the unfinished Cook’s Tale (Opening Up, pp. 79-86).
Finding Order: What’s New in Canterbury Tales Codicology Studies Since 2012? by Karrie Fuller [Link to Essay]
VI. The Scribe Speaks at Last: Hoccleve as Scribe E [h3]
Summary: [h4]
This is a 2-3 sentence summary of the section. The text right below this, in color, will be the title of and link to the essay that provides the updates. The shorter the summary, the better because this Table of Contents is already dense enough (Opening Up, pp. 87-94).
Catchy Essay Title: What’s New in Hoccleve Manuscript Studies Since 2012? by Amanda Bohne [Link to Essay]
▾Chapter 2. Romancing the Book: Manuscripts for “Euerich Inglische” / Linda Olson [h2]
For full analysis and images that cover pre-2012 scholarship, see Opening Up Middle English Manuscripts: Literary and Visual Approaches [link] (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2012): p. 95 ff.
I. Englishing Romance: The Auchinleck Manuscript [h3]
Summary: [h4]
This is a 2-3 sentence summary of the section. The text right below this, in color, will be the title of and link to the essay that provides the updates. The shorter the summary, the better because this Table of Contents is already dense enough (Opening Up, pp. 99-116).
Catchy Essay Title: What’s New in Auchinleck Manuscript Studies Since 2012? by Hannah Zdansky [Link to Essay]
II. Romancing the Gentry Household: Robert Thornton’s Homemade Family Library
Summary: [h4]
This is a 2-3 sentence summary of the section. The text right below this, in color, will be the title of and link to the essay that provides the updates. The shorter the summary, the better because this Table of Contents is already dense enough (Opening Up, pp. 116-139).
Catchy Essay Title: What’s New in Robert Thornton’s Library Studies Since 2012? by Hannah Zdansky [Link to Essay]
III. Courting Romance in the Provinces: The Findern Manuscript [h3]
Summary: [h4]
This is a 2-3 sentence summary of the section. The text right below this, in color, will be the title of and link to the essay that provides the updates. The shorter the summary, the better because this Table of Contents is already dense enough (Opening Up, pp. 139-151).
Catchy Essay Title: What’s New in Findern Manuscript Studies Since 2012? by Hannah Zdansky [Link to Essay]
▾Chapter 3. The Power of Images in the Auchinleck, Vernon, Pearl, and Two Piers Plowman Manuscripts / Maidie Hilmo [h2]
For full analysis and images that cover pre-2012 scholarship, see Opening Up Middle English Manuscripts: Literary and Visual Approaches [link] (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2012): p. 153 ff.
I. Looking at Medieval Images [h3]
Summary: [h4]
This is a 2-3 sentence summary of the section. The text right below this, in color, will be the title of and link to the essay that provides the updates. The shorter the summary, the better because this Table of Contents is already dense enough (Opening Up, pp. 153-158).
Catchy Essay Title: What’s New in Studies of Manuscript Images Since 2012? by Hannah Zdansky [Link to Essay]
II. The Auchinleck Manuscript [h3]
Summary: [h4]
This is a 2-3 sentence summary of the section. The text right below this, in color, will be the title of and link to the essay that provides the updates. The shorter the summary, the better because this Table of Contents is already dense enough (Opening Up, pp. 158-165).
Catchy Essay Title: What’s New in Auchinleck Manuscript Image Studies Since 2012? by Hannah Zdansky [Link to Essay]
III. The Vernon Manuscript [h3]
Summary: [h4]
This is a 2-3 sentence summary of the section. The text right below this, in color, will be the title of and link to the essay that provides the updates. The shorter the summary, the better because this Table of Contents is already dense enough (Opening Up, pp. 165-172).
Catchy Essay Title: What’s New in Vernon Manuscript Image Studies Since 2012? by Hannah Zdansky [Link to Essay]
IV. The Pearl Manuscript [h3]
Summary: [h4]
This is a 2-3 sentence summary of the section. The text right below this, in color, will be the title of and link to the essay that provides the updates. The shorter the summary, the better because this Table of Contents is already dense enough (Opening Up, pp. 172-189).
Catchy Essay Title: What’s New in Pearl Manuscript Illustration Studies Since 2012? by Hannah Zdansky [Link to Essay]
V. Two Piers Plowman Manuscripts and the Ushaw Prick of Conscience [h3]
Summary: [h4]
In Part 1, Hilmo examines the author portraits found in two Piers manuscripts: Oxford, Corpus Christi College Ms 201 and Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Douce 104. She demonstrates that although the Piers author portraits conflate the author and narrator, they are in keeping with both Langland’s resistance to ostentatious art and the adoption in Middle English manuscripts of a Latinate religious visual vocabulary. Instead of focusing solely on textual illustration, part 2 offers a rare discussion about manuscript decoration that compares Piers in Ms 201 with a copy of the Prick of Conscience by the same scribe in Durham, Ushaw College Ms 50, detailing how the decorative elements in each manuscript frame issues relating to conscience and point to the scribe’s dual role as copyist and illustrator (Opening Up, pp. 189-204).
Illustrating Scribes: What’s New in Piers Plowman Illustration Studies Since 2012? by Karrie Fuller
VI. Conclusion [h3]
Summary: [h4]
This is a 2-3 sentence summary of the section. The text right below this, in color, will be the title of and link to the essay that provides the updates. The shorter the summary, the better because this Table of Contents is already dense enough (Opening Up, pp. 204-205).
Catchy Essay Title: What’s New in Middle English Manuscript Illustration Studies Since 2012? by Hannah Zdansky [Link to Essay]
▾Chapter 4. Professional Readers at Work: Annotators, Editors, and Correctors in Middle English Literary Texts / Kathryn Kerby-Fulton [h2]
For full analysis and images that cover pre-2012 scholarship, see Opening Up Middle English Manuscripts: Literary and Visual Approaches [link] (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2012): p. 207 ff.
I. Categories of Marginalia: The Annotating and Glossing of Chaucer [h3]
Summary: [h4]
Here, Kerby-Fulton offers an overview of common annotations types, most of which appear in some form in Canterbury Tales manuscripts, with many of the earliest ones in Hengwrt and Ellesmere likely belonging to Chaucer himself. The Nun’s Priest’s Tale, for instance, is offered as an example because it contains such a wide variety that they represent medieval reading practices more broadly. When read alongside the passages they mark, the explanatory glosses commonly attributed to Chaucer change the reading experience, ambiguating the meaning in the Wife of Bath’s Tale as opposed to John Gower’s use of Latin glosses as narrative aids in the Confessio Amantis (Opening Up, pp. 210-222).
Reading Categories: What’s New in Chaucerian Marginalia Studies Since 2012? by Karrie Fuller [Link to Essay]
II. The Annotations in Manuscripts of Langland’s Piers Plowman [h3]
Summary: [h4]
This is a 2-3 sentence summary of the section. The text right below this, in color, will be the title of and link to the essay that provides the updates. The shorter the summary, the better because this Table of Contents is already dense enough (Opening Up, pp. 223-234).
Catchy Essay Title: What’s New in Piers Plowman Annotation Studies Since 2012? by Karrie Fuller [Link to Essay]
III. Annotations and Corrections in the Book of Margery Kempe: Cruxes, Controversies, and Solutions [h3]
Summary: [h4]
This is a 2-3 sentence summary of the section. The text right below this, in color, will be the title of and link to the essay that provides the updates. The shorter the summary, the better because this Table of Contents is already dense enough (Opening Up, pp. 234-239).
Catchy Essay Title: What’s New in Book of Margery Kempe Annotation Studies Since 2012? by Amanda Bohne [Link to Essay]
IV. The Quiet Connoisseur: The First Annotator(s) of Julian of Norwich’s Showings in the Amherst Manuscript (British Library, MS Add. 37790) [h3]
Summary: [h4]
This is a 2-3 sentence summary of the section. The text right below this, in color, will be the title of and link to the essay that provides the updates. The shorter the summary, the better because this Table of Contents is already dense enough (Opening Up, pp. 239-244).
Catchy Essay Title: What’s New in Julian of Norwich Annotation Studies Since 2012? by Karrie Fuller [Link to Essay]
▾Chapter 5. Illuminating Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales: Portraits of the Author and Selected Pilgrim Authors / Maidie Hilmo [h2]
For full analysis and images that cover pre-2012 scholarship, see Opening Up Middle English Manuscripts: Literary and Visual Approaches [link] (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2012): p. 245 ff.
I. Introduction[h3]
Summary: [h4]
This is a 2-3 sentence summary of the section. The text right below this, in color, will be the title of and link to the essay that provides the updates. The shorter the summary, the better because this Table of Contents is already dense enough (Opening Up, pp. 245-250).
Catchy Essay Title: What’s New in Canterbury Tales Image Studies Since 2012? by Amanda Bohne [Link to Essay]
II. The Decoration and Borders of the Hengwrt and Ellesmere Manuscripts [h3]
Summary: [h4]
This is a 2-3 sentence summary of the section. The text right below this, in color, will be the title of and link to the essay that provides the updates. The shorter the summary, the better because this Table of Contents is already dense enough (Opening Up, pp. 250-254).
Catchy Essay Title: What’s New in Hengwrt and Ellesmere Decoration Studies Since 2012? by Amanda Bohne [Link to Essay]
III. The Historiated Initial with an Author Portrait: A Further Development of the Hengwrt Tradition [h3]
Summary: [h4]
This is a 2-3 sentence summary of the section. The text right below this, in color, will be the title of and link to the essay that provides the updates. The shorter the summary, the better because this Table of Contents is already dense enough (Opening Up, pp. 254-266).
Catchy Essay Title: What’s New in Author Portrait Studies Since 2012? by Amanda Bohne [Link to Essay]
IV. The Ellesmere Traditions: Illustrated Pilgrim Authors [h3]
Summary: [h4]
This is a 2-3 sentence summary of the section. The text right below this, in color, will be the title of and link to the essay that provides the updates. The shorter the summary, the better because this Table of Contents is already dense enough (Opening Up, pp. 267-287).
Catchy Essay Title: What’s New in Ellesmere Illustration Studies Since 2012? by Richard Fahey [Link to Essay]
V. Conclusion [h3]
Summary: [h4]
This is a 2-3 sentence summary of the section. The text right below this, in color, will be the title of and link to the essay that provides the updates. The shorter the summary, the better because this Table of Contents is already dense enough (Opening Up, pp. 287-289).
Catchy Essay Title: What’s New in Middle English Image Studies Since 2012? by Amanda Bohne [Link to Essay]
▾Chapter 6. “Swete Cordyall” of “Lytterature”: Some Middle English Manuscripts from the Cloister / Linda Olson [h2]
For full analysis and images that cover pre-2012 scholarship, see Opening Up Middle English Manuscripts: Literary and Visual Approaches [link] (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2012): p. 291 ff.
I. Nourishing the Spirit of Religious Women: Vernacular Texts and Manuscripts [h3]
Summary: [h4]
This is a 2-3 sentence summary of the section. The text right below this, in color, will be the title of and link to the essay that provides the updates. The shorter the summary, the better because this Table of Contents is already dense enough (Opening Up, pp. 293-303).
Catchy Essay Title: What’s New in Religious Women’s Manuscript Studies Since 2012? by Karrie Fuller [Link to Essay]
II. Monastic Manuscripts of Chaucer: Literary Excellence under Religious Rule—The Contents of London, British Library, MS Harley 7333 [h3]
Summary: [h4]
This is a 2-3 sentence summary of the section. The text right below this, in color, will be the title of and link to the essay that provides the updates. The shorter the summary, the better because this Table of Contents is already dense enough (Opening Up, pp. 303-314).
Catchy Essay Title: What’s New in Chaucerian Monastic Manuscript Studies Since 2012? by Karrie Fuller [Link to Essay]
III. Lots of Lydgate and a Little Hoccleve: Chaucer’s Successors in Monastic Hands [h3]
Summary: [h4]
This is a 2-3 sentence summary of the section. The text right below this, in color, will be the title of and link to the essay that provides the updates. The shorter the summary, the better because this Table of Contents is already dense enough (Opening Up, pp. 314-318).
Catchy Essay Title: What’s New in Lydgate and Hoccleve Monastic Manuscript Studies Since 2012? by Amanda Bohne [Link to Essay]
IV. “Sadde Mete” for Mind and Soul: Contemplative and Visionary Texts in the Cloister [h3]
Summary: [h4]
This is a 2-3 sentence summary of the section. The text right below this, in color, will be the title of and link to the essay that provides the updates. The shorter the summary, the better because this Table of Contents is already dense enough (Opening Up, pp. 319-335).
Catchy Essay Title: What’s New in Contemplative and Visionary Manuscript Studies Since 2012? by Hannah Zdansky [Link to Essay]
V. Taking it to the Streets: Middle English Drama from the Cloister [h3]
Summary: [h4]
This is a 2-3 sentence summary of the section. The text right below this, in color, will be the title of and link to the essay that provides the updates. The shorter the summary, the better because this Table of Contents is already dense enough (Opening Up, pp. 335-354).
Catchy Essay Title: What’s New in Middle English Drama Manuscript Studies Since 2012? by Karrie Fuller [Link to Essay]
▾List of Manuscripts & Post-2012 Bibliography [h2]
For bibliographical entries that cover pre-2012 scholarship, see Opening Up Middle English Manuscripts: Literary and Visual Approaches [link] (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2012): 355-374.
I. List of Manuscripts [h3] (linked to digitized versions wherever possible)
II. Supplemental Bibliography [h3] (linked to combined bibliography from all our essays)