Wendy Scase

Essays in Manuscript Geography: Vernacular Manuscripts of the English West Midlands from the Conquest to the Sixteenth Century Wendy Scase

Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index. Publisher Marketing: The medieval English West Midlands has long been associated with the production of vernacular texts, in Old and Middle English, and with the making of several famous manuscripts. The aim of this volume is to re-think assumptions about medieval literature and the region in the light of new research in medieval book history. A series of specially commissioned essays in 'manuscript geography' examines the making and use of texts and books in relation to cultural networks in the region and beyond. Included are case studies of manuscripts of Worcester and the Worcester diocese from the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries; investigations of manuscript production in fourteenth-century Shropshire and its wider regional links; and essays on textual cultures in Warwickshire from the activities of the aristocrats and gentry of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries to the projects of later antiquarians. Essays in the final section of the volume reflect on the possibilities of large-scale, corpus-based research on medieval manuscript books. Collectively the essays identify and explore some of the investments of traditional regionalist accounts of vernacular literary culture and model new theoretical and methodological approaches. Review Citations: Reference and Research Bk News 05/01/2008 pg. 361 (EAN 9782503516950, Hardcover) Contributor Bio:  Scase, Wendy Wendy Scase is Geoffrey Shepherd Professor of Medieval English Literature at the University of Birmingham, where she chairs programmes in Medieval Studies, and co-directs the Hilton Shepherd Centre for Medieval Studies. A Leverhulme Research Fellowship released her from these duties, enabling her todo much of the research and writing for this book.