Scribal correction and literary craft : English manuscripts 1375-1510 / Daniel Wakelin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wakelin, Daniel, 1977- author.

Contributor:

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

Series:

Cambridge studies in medieval literature ; 91.

Cambridge studies in medieval literature ; 91

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English literature--Middle English, 1100-1500--History and criticism.

English literature.

Manuscripts, Medieval--England--History.

Manuscripts, Medieval.

Transmission of texts.

Literature, Medieval--Criticism, Textual.

Literature, Medieval.

Criticism, Textual.

History.

England--Intellectual life--1066-1485.

England.

Intellectual life.

English literature--Middle English.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

History.

Physical Description:

xviii, 345 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, United Kingdom : Cambridge University Press, 2014.

Summary:

"This extensive survey of scribal correction in English manuscripts explores what correcting reveals about attitudes to books, language and literature in late medieval England. Daniel Wakelin surveys a range of manuscripts and genres, but focuses especially on poems by Chaucer, Hoccleve and Lydgate, and on prose works such as chronicles, religious instruction and practical lore. His materials are the variants and corrections found in manuscripts, phenomena usually studied only by editors or palaeographers, but his method is the close reading and interpretation typical of literary criticism. From the corrections emerge often overlooked aspects of English literary thinking in the late Middle Ages: scribes, readers and authors seek, though often fail to achieve, invariant copying, orderly spelling, precise diction, regular verse and textual completeness. Correcting reveals their impressive attention to scribal and literary craft - its rigour, subtlety, formalism and imaginativeness - in an age with little other literary criticism in English"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction

Contexts

Inviting correction

Copying, varying and correcting

People and institutions

Craft

Techniques

Accuracy

Writing well

Literary criticism

Diction, tone and style

Form

Completeness

Implications

Authorship

Conclusion: varying, correcting and critical thinking.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

9781107076228

1107076226

OCLC:

880541460

Online:

Cover image