The Manuscripts of Piers Plowman: The B Version

Abstract

This is the B-version of Piers Plowman, probably the only version authorized by Langland. This catalogue of the 18 extant manuscripts, now located in Cambridge, London, Oxford, Tokyo and California, offers both individual manuscript descriptions and a record of the annotations. The detailed codicological descriptions include information on provenance and ownership; a full list of the contents; and a description of the physical make-up and presentation of each manuscript. The substantial first full account of the various textual annotations in each manuscript (whether produced by original scribes or later readers) provides the best record available of how Piers Plowman was understood by its earliest audience.