Fresh examinations of the manuscript which is one of the chief compendiums of literature in the Middle English period. Created in London c. 1340, the Auchinleck manuscript (Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland Advocates MS 19.2.1) is of crucial importance as the first book designed to convey in the English language an ambitious range ofsecular romance and chronicle. Evidently made in London by professional scribes for a secular patron, this tantalizing volume embodies a massive amount of material evidence as to London commercial book production and the demand for vernacular texts in the early fourteenth century. But its origins are mysterious: who were its makers? its users? how was it made? what end did it serve? The essays in this collection define the parameters of present-day Auchinleck studies. They scrutinize the manuscript's rich and varied contents; reopen theories and controversies regarding the book's making; trace the operations and interworkings of the scribes, compiler, and illuminators; teaseout matters of patron and audience; interpret the contested signs of linguistic and national identity; and assess Auchinleck's implied literary values beside those of Chaucer. Geography, politics, international relations and multilingualism become pressing subjects, too, alongside critical analyses of literary substance. SUSANNA FEIN is Professor of English at Kent State University and editor of The Chaucer Review. Contributors: Venetia Bridges, Patrick Butler, Siobhain Bly Calkin, A. S. G. Edwards, Ralph Hanna, Ann Higgins, Cathy Hume, Marisa Libbon, Derek Pearsall, Helen Phillips, Emily Runde, Timothy A. Shonk, Miceal F. Vaughan.

About the Author
A. S. G. Edwards is Honorary Professor of Medieval Manuscripts at the University of Kent at Canterbury. CATHY HUME is a Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Bristol. The late Derek Pearsall was Emeritus Gurney Professor of Middle English Literature at Harvard University; he wrote extensively on Chaucer, Gower, Langland and Lydgate, including biographies of Chaucer and Lydgate, an edition of the C-text of Langland's Piers Plowman.

Reviews
A weighty and significant publication.. It constitutes essential reading, not only for any serious student of the Auchinleck Ms. and its texts, but also for those interested in medieval romance and in any aspect of medieval ms. culture. It is also an example of an all-too-rare phenomenon: a volume of essays which is, through their interaction and skillful curation, significantly more than the sum of its parts. * SCRIPTORIUM *
Future scholars will need to ground themselves in this volume. * ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW *
This collection is a great resource for further scholarship on the Auchinleck manuscript and the treasures it contains. * THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW *



Book Information
ISBN 9781903153789
Author Susanna Fein
Format Paperback
Page Count 266
Imprint York Medieval Press
Publisher York Medieval Press