Index Of Middle English Prose Research Articles

A search tool based on language modelling developed for The Index of Middle English Prose

Non-standardised early vernaculars present a problem for search tools due to the high degree of variation. The challenge lies in the variation found in orthography, syntax, and lexicon between titles, incipits, and explicits in manuscript copies of the same work. Traditional search methods relying on exact string matching or regular expressions fail to address these variations comprehensively. This project presents a web-based search tool specifically designed to handle linguistic and textual variation. The software is made available as a part of the Index of Middle English Prose (IMEP). The search tool addresses the issue of variation by utilizing a database of incipits and explicits, character-based n-gram language models (LMs) built with the Stanford Research Institute Language Modelling (SRILM) toolkit, and a fuzzy search script (IMEP: FSS) written in Python. The tool optimizes for recall, retrieving multiple potential matches for a search string, without attempting to identify the ‘correct’ one. The search process involves looking up exact matches in the database while simultaneously using the fuzzy search script to evaluate the incipits and explicits against a model of the search string, followed by a match of the search string against models of the incipits and explicits. This two-step process shortens the processing time, which would otherwise be unreasonably long, because while using SRILM to match the search string against each incipit or explicit in the IMEP for precision could be time-consuming, running a first step where all texts are matched against a single LM built from the search string allows for faster processing. A web application, built using Django and Docker, combines the results of the direct database lookup and the fuzzy search script, presenting them as a list with exact matches followed by fuzzy matches ordered by increasing model perplexity. The tool is made available Open Access and can be adapted to other datasets.

A search tool based on language modelling developed for The Index of Middle English Prose.

Non-standardised early vernaculars present a problem for search tools due to the high degree of variation. The challenge lies in the variation found in orthography, syntax, and lexicon between titles, incipits, and explicits in manuscript copies of the same work. Traditional search methods relying on exact string matching or regular expressions fail to address these variations comprehensively. This project presents a web-based search tool specifically designed to handle linguistic and textual variation. The software is made available as a part of the Index of Middle English Prose (IMEP). The search tool addresses the issue of variation by utilizing a database of incipits and explicits, character-based n-gram language models (LMs) built with the Stanford Research Institute Language Modelling (SRILM) toolkit, and a fuzzy search script (IMEP: FSS) written in Python. The tool optimizes for recall, retrieving multiple potential matches for a search string, without attempting to identify the 'correct' one. The search process involves looking up exact matches in the database while simultaneously using the fuzzy search script to evaluate the incipits and explicits against a model of the search string, followed by a match of the search string against models of the incipits and explicits. This two-step process shortens the processing time, which would otherwise be unreasonably long, because while using SRILM to match the search string against each incipit or explicit in the IMEP for precision could be time-consuming, running a first step where all texts are matched against a single LM built from the search string allows for faster processing. A web application, built using Django and Docker, combines the results of the direct database lookup and the fuzzy search script, presenting them as a list with exact matches followed by fuzzy matches ordered by increasing model perplexity. The tool is made available Open Access and can be adapted to other datasets.

The Extent of Fire Damage to Middle English Prose in the Cotton Library

The library of Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (1570/1-1631) has been described as the most important collection of manuscripts assembled by a single person in Britain. The collection was partly destroyed in a library fire in 1731. While the Cotton collection has been celebrated (and the damage it suffered lamented) for its Old English manuscripts, the extent of fire damage to Middle English prose within the collection has not been systematically explored. This article aims to address this gap by conducting a comprehensive comparison of surviving manuscripts which are now part of the Cotton collection in the British Library with surviving pre- and post-fire catalogues, book lists and reports of Cotton’s manuscripts. The investigation was undertaken during the compilation of an Index of Middle English Prose (IMEP) volume dedicated to the Cotton collection.

The Index of Middle English Prose, Handlist XXIII: The Rawlinson Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford. by S. J. Ogilvie-Thomson

<i>The Index of Middle English Prose, Handlist XXIII: The Rawlinson Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford</i>. by S. J. <scp>Ogilvie-Thomson</scp>

The Index of Middle English Prose: Index to Volumes I-XX

The Index of Middle English Prose: Index to Volumes I-XX

The Index of Middle English Prose: An Assessment after Twenty Volumes

The first volume of the Index of Middle English Prose appeared in 1984. Twenty volumes have now been published (three written by the present author) and several are in preparation. The series identifies and describes English prose texts in medieval manuscripts written between 1200 and 1500, collection by collection. This article sketches the background against which the series was planned, attempts to identify its achievements and shortcomings, and suggests some potential improvements.

The Index of Middle English Prose, General Editor A. S. G. Edwards: Kari Anne Rand,Handlist XVIII: Manuscripts in the Library of Pembroke College, Cambridge, and the Fitzwilliam Museum; Margaret Connolly,Handlist XIX: Manuscripts in the University Library, Cambridge (Dd–Oo); Kari Anne Rand,Handlist XX: Manuscripts in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge

Article The Index of Middle English Prose, General Editor A. S. G. Edwards: Kari Anne Rand, Handlist XVIII: Manuscripts in the Library of Pembroke College, Cambridge, and the Fitzwilliam Museum; Margaret Connolly, Handlist XIX: Manuscripts in the University Library, Cambridge (DdOo); Kari Anne Rand, Handlist XX: Manuscripts in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge was published on December 1, 2011 in the journal Anglia (volume 129, issue 3-4).

The Index of Middle English Prose, Handlist XVIII: Manuscripts of Pembroke College, Cambridge and the Fitzwilliam Museum

The Index of Middle English Prose, Handlist XVIII: Manuscripts of Pembroke College, Cambridge and the Fitzwilliam Museum

The Index of Middle English Prose , Handlist XVII: Manuscripts in the Library of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge by Kari Anne Rand Schmidt (review)

MLRy 98.4,2003 951 The Index ofMiddle English Prose, Handlist xvn: Manuscripts in theLibrary ofGonville and Caius College, Cambridge. By Kari Anne Rand Schmidt. (The Index of Middle English Prose) Cambridge: Brewer. 2001. xxvi + 168 pp. ?35; $60. ISBN0-85991-611-1. The seventeenth published Handlist for the Index of Middle English Prose describes just over four hundred Middle English prose items that Kari Anne Rand Schmidt has found in fifty-fourmanuscripts and one set of binding fragments belonging to Gonville and Caius College. The Gonville and Caius manuscripts have been described previously, notably in an anonymous early register ofbook loans forthe years 1406-1 o, then by Thomas James in 1600, with more recent catalogues of the collection prepared by J.J. Smith in 1849 and by M. R. James in 1907-08 (followed by a supplementary volume by James in 1913). Building upon this work and other bibliographical schol? arship on college history, Schmidt describes how some three hundred manuscripts have been held in the library since its foundation in 1348-49, with the Gonville and Caius collection subsequently augmented by several important early bequests and split from an early date between the manuscripts that formed the core of a working library and the other volumes that were made available for lending. It is striking in this respect that over half of the manuscripts indexed in Handlist xvn once formed part of one of the largest post-medieval bequests of manuscripts to Gonville and Caius, a collection that had earlier been the property of William Moore (1590-1659), college fellow and University Librarian. It is also notable that many of the Middle English items described by Schmidt form a fairlyminor component in much larger manuscript collections. Much of the Middle English material listed as macaronic in Handlist xvn, for example, enjoys the status of vernacular glosses, Latin-English vocabularies, or synonymy notes, while other material sometimes survives as short English passages embedded in Latin chronicle versions (MS 249/277), or as English prose phrases in Latin sermons (MSS 334/727, 441/636), or as marginalia, glosses, or flyleaf notes, including the comment (s. xiv) that 'Paston is a good felaw seyth norwych ye gentelman' on fol. 72 in MS 36/142^ volume of unknown provenance that was described as belonging to Gonville and Caius by Thomas James in 1600 and contains no other relevant Middle English material. Given the pattern established by the other published handlists in this series, it is completely unsurprising that medical and related scientific and informational Middle English material predominates in Handlist xvn. In English Studies, 75 (1994), 423-29, Schmidt has written forcefully and well on the knotty bibliographical issues raised by indexing late medieval medical reeipes, but for the task at hand she somewhat reluctantly concedes that she has had to adopt the more pragmatic approach favoured by the editors of this series. At many points in her descriptions of individual reeipes, charms, prognosticatory items, uroscopies, treatises on bloodlettings, and larger clusters of such material, Schmidt's undoubted expertise enables her to offerimproved bibliographical accounts of the convoluted textual histories witnessed by some of the relevant Gonville and Caius items. Some duplication of information with the de? scription of similar such material in earlier handlists is obviously unavoidable. On the other hand, it is worth emphasizing that the development of a fully searchable and updatable electronic database for the Index of Middle English Prose would have re? moved the necessity forsuch overlap and would have gone some way towards meeting Schmidt's reservations concerning the manner in which individual Middle English prose items are sometimes described in the handlists. Queen's University Belfast John J.Thompson ...

The Index of Middle English Prose, Handlist XVII: Manuscripts in the Library of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge

The Index of Middle English Prose, Handlist XVII: Manuscripts in the Library of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge

The Index of Middle English Prose, Handlist 15: Manuscripts in Midland Libraries. Valerie EddenThe Index of Middle English Prose, Handlist 16: Manuscripts in the Laudian Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford. S. J. Ogilvie-ThomsonThe Index of Middle English Prose, Handlist 17: Manuscripts in the Library of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. Kari Anne Rand Schmidt

Previous articleNext article No AccessReviewsThe Index of Middle English Prose, Handlist 15: Manuscripts in Midland Libraries. Valerie Edden The Index of Middle English Prose, Handlist 16: Manuscripts in the Laudian Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford. S. J. Ogilvie-Thomson The Index of Middle English Prose, Handlist 17: Manuscripts in the Library of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. Kari Anne Rand Schmidt Charles F. BriggsCharles F. Briggs Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Speculum Volume 78, Number 2Apr., 2003 The journal of the Medieval Academy of America Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1017/S0038713400168897 Copyright 2003 The Medieval Academy of AmericaPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

The Index of Middle English Prose, Handlist XV: Manuscripts in Midland Libraries. Ed. Valerie Edden. / The Index of Middle English Prose, Handlist XVI: Manuscripts in the Laudian Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford. Ed. S. J. Ogilvie-Thomson. / The Index of Middle English Prose, Handlist XVII: Manuscripts in the Library of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. Ed. Kari Anne Rand Schmidt.

The Index of Middle English Prose, Handlist XV: Manuscripts in Midland Libraries. Ed. Valerie Edden. / The Index of Middle English Prose, Handlist XVI: Manuscripts in the Laudian Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford. Ed. S. J. Ogilvie-Thomson. / The Index of Middle English Prose, Handlist XVII: Manuscripts in the Library of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. Ed. Kari Anne Rand Schmidt.

The Index of Middle English Prose , Handlist xiii: Manuscripts in Lambeth Palace Library by O. S. Pickering, V. M. O’Mara, and: The Index of Middle English Prose , Handlist xiv: Manuscripts in the National Library of Wales by William Marx, and: The Index of Middle English Prose , Handlist xv: Manuscripts in Midland Libraries by Valerie Edden, and: The

156 Reviews The Index ofMiddle English Prose, Handlist xm: Manuscripts in Lambeth Palace Lib? rary. By O. S. Pickering and V. M. O'Mara. (The Index of Middle English Prose) Cambridge: Brewer. 1999. xxviii+133 pp. ?35; $60. ISBN 0-85991547 -6. The Index ofMiddle English Prose, Handlist xiv: Manuscripts in the National Library of Wales. By William Marx. (The Index of Middle English Prose) Cambridge: Brewer. 1999. xxvii + ioopp. ?35; $55. ISBN 0-85991-549-2. The Index of Middle English Prose, Handlist xv: Manuscripts in Midland Libraries. By Valerie Edden. (The Index of Middle English Prose) Cambridge: Brewer. 2000. xxvi + nopp. ?30; $55. ISBN 0-85991-587-5. The Index of Middle English Prose, Handlist xvi: Manuscripts in the Laudian Col? lection, Bodleian Library, Oxford. By S. J. Ogilvie-Thomson. (The Index of Middle English Prose) Cambridge: Brewer. 2000. xxii+140 pp. ?35; $55. ISBN o-8599i~595~6. The publication over two years of four new Handlists forthe Index ofMiddle English Prose is a matter of some celebration since it marks further slow but steady progress towards the goal of describing the Middle English prose material in various major repositories. In their trawl of the English medieval manuscripts in Lambeth Palace Library forHandlist xm, Oliver Pickering and Veronica O' Mara have searched widely to find almost 800 relevant items in just over eighty manuscripts, five registers, and nine legal documents, including a number of post-medieval transcripts by Henry Wharton and material formerly held in Sion College Library. In Handlist xvi S. J. Ogilvie-Thomson has found seventy manuscripts containing Middle English prose among a collection of more than twelve thousand volumes donated to the Bodleian Library by Archbishop Laud in the years 1629-41. William Marx's search of the National Library of Wales for Handlist xiv?the first in this series to cover a na? tional library?has yielded up forty-nine manuscripts, most of Welsh provenance. Another eighty-one manuscripts have been added to the tally by Valerie Edden's search of twelve Midland libraries for Handlist xv, a search that has included the cathedral libraries of Hereford and Worcester, Gloucester, Lichfield, Peterborough, and Southwell Minster. Handlists xm-xvi thus index the relevant Middle English material in more than 320 manuscripts now held in fifteenmodern collections, the tip of an iceberg, perhaps, but also an essential first stage in preparing for a truly comprehensive general index ofthe Middle English prose corpus. Modern collaborative bibliographical expertise is very much in evidence in Hand? lists xm-xvi. Cross-references are made as appropriate to individual entries in previously published volumes of the series and these are emended as necessary. Attention is also sensibly drawn to useful descriptive accounts of individual texts and manu? scripts in library catalogues or other related sources of information, such as N. R. Ker's magisterial Medieval Manuscripts in British Libraries in four volumes (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969,1977,1983,1992). Where important recent critical and textual studies have been published, such as Lister Matheson, The Prose 'Brut': The Devel? opment of a Middle English Chronicle (Tempe, AZ: Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 1998), these too are noted (Handlist xvi only,in the case of this example). As a result, the careful reader of these volumes can gain an informed and essentially cumulative bibliographical understanding of what is or is not representative of the Middle English prose corpus, particularly the survival rates of certain widely copied items such as the WycliffiteBible, the Brut, numerous medical reeipes, scientific and informational texts, translations, sermons, and certain religious treatises. In sum, the descriptions of individual prose items for Handlists xm-xvi consistently provide us with the most up-to-date (sometimes the only) bibliographical profiles of some shame- MLR, 98.1, 2003 157 fully neglected Middle English material, where it is not uncommon to discover new texts of one kind or another hidden in unexpected places or remote archives. Often the cumulative weight of the descriptive evidence presented in succeeding Handlists is also significant since it testifiesto the intractable bibliographical difficultiespresented by the manuscript survivals and the provisional nature of modern systematic attempts to describe individual Middle English prose items according to a standardized...

Medieval Women and the Law ed. by Noël James Menuge (review)

MLR, 98.1, 2003 157 fully neglected Middle English material, where it is not uncommon to discover new texts of one kind or another hidden in unexpected places or remote archives. Often the cumulative weight of the descriptive evidence presented in succeeding Handlists is also significant since it testifiesto the intractable bibliographical difficultiespresented by the manuscript survivals and the provisional nature of modern systematic attempts to describe individual Middle English prose items according to a standardized and convenient modern editorial format. All four Handlists under review have much to offer future specialist readers in these respects, but it is perhaps Handlist xiv in the current published crop that has yielded up some of the most interesting challenges and new finds. In this volume, William Marx deals efficientlywith the task of indexing a relatively small and fairly compact series of manuscripts containing Middle English prose in the National Lib? rary of Wales. Along the way, he raises a number of intriguing questions relating to the identification and indexing of Middle English prose historical writings, prophecies , and scientific texts. The accompanying insightful commentary in the general introduction and elsewhere then picks up on related methodological and contextual issues concerning the translation, transmission, and reception of such material in a variety of vernacular and polyglot Welsh and English settings, topics that Marx has also written well on and at greater length elsewhere. Reading Handlists xiii-xvi together leaves the strong impression that work forthe larger project remains very much in progress. An end to the endeavour can hardly be in sight just yet since future contributors still have to deal with the multitudes of manuscripts known to contain short Middle English prose items in the British Library or other London libraries, or in Oxford and Cambridge collections, and in widely scattered major (and minor) repositories in North America, Britain, Ireland, and elsewhere. They will have the certain knowledge that other similar material may lurk undetected or unidentified in other archives. In short, nearly a quarter of a cen? tury after the publication of Handlist 1: The Henry E. Huntington Library by Ralph Hanna (Cambridge: Brewer, 1984), there seems littleprospect that the proposed Index of Middle English Prose will find its way soon onto library and study shelves. On the other hand, after the years of search and preparation represented by Handlists i-xvi, one would like to think that sooner rather than later some electronic means might be found to construct a searchable Index of Middle English Prose database that could be updated as necessary to take account of new identifications, other knotty textual and editorial problems, and necessary revisions as these emerge during the next phase of this enormous collaborative research project. Queen's University Belfast John J.Thompson Medieval Women and the Law. Ed. by Noel James Menuge. Woodbridge: Boydell Press. 2000. xiii+i69pp. ?40; $75. ISBN 0-85115-775-0. In this collection of essays, the primary concern of the authors is variously with his? tory or with literature, but almost all are engaged in discovering how texts which are usually categorized either as legal documents or as fictional narratives may illuminate each other. Historical evidence is deconstructed to reveal the interests it served; lit? erary texts are examined for the ways in which they reinforce or offerchallenges to these power structures. The questions that occur to the reader of the collection con? cern the implementation of these approaches: are the authors sophisticated enough in their analyses of the historical evidence? Are they sufficientlysensitive as readers of literature? The methodology is best exemplified in the essay by Menuge herself, where it 158 Reviews works brilliantly. Menuge examines the question ofthe role ofthe mother in guardianship arrangements, a topic hitherto studied almost exclusively through the evidence provided by contemporary legislation, legal treatises, and cases. She observes that romances may inform and complement historical interpretations, noting that such study may shed light on the social and political roles expected of aristocratic parents and guardians. Her approach is of particular importance because the sceptical pose adopted in this volume in relation to all texts results, in some cases, in a reluctance on the part of contributors to connect their readings to any hypothesis...

The Index of Middle English Prose, Handlist XIII: Manuscripts in Lambeth Palace Library

The Index of Middle English Prose, Handlist XIII: Manuscripts in Lambeth Palace Library

Manuscripts in Lambeth Palace Library, The Index of Middle English Prose, Handlist XIII

Manuscripts in Lambeth Palace Library, The Index of Middle English Prose, Handlist XIII

Manuscripts in Lambeth Palace Library, The Index of Middle English Prose, Handlist XIII

1Pembroke College, Oxford Manuscripts in Lambeth Palace Library, The Index of Middle English Prose, Handlist XIII O. S.PickeringV. M.O'Mara xxviii + 133CambridgeD. S. Brewer 1999£35.00 085991‐547‐6

The Index of Middle English Prose, Handlist 12: Smaller Bodleian Collections: English Miscellaneous, English Poetry, English Theology, Finch, Latin Theology, Lyell, Radcliff Trust. Ralph Hanna III

Previous articleNext article No AccessReviewsThe Index of Middle English Prose, Handlist 12: Smaller Bodleian Collections: English Miscellaneous, English Poetry, English Theology, Finch, Latin Theology, Lyell, Radcliff Trust. Ralph Hanna III Nicholas WatsonNicholas Watson Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Speculum Volume 77, Number 1Jan., 2002 The journal of the Medieval Academy of America Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2307/2903828 Views: 1Total views on this site Copyright 2002 The Medieval Academy of AmericaPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Anglo-Norman Literature: A Guide to Texts and Manuscripts (review)

Reviews 175 beginnings or experiences. They invariably present a linear, causal development, which invokes a 'narcissistic bond with an assumedly rational cosmos' (p. 171). In repeatedly showing the fragility ofthis bond, Davis concludes, that 'The poem, or Milton, has thoroughly accepted the challenge to restricted conceptions of rationality which thought of Chaos poses' (p. 184). Stories of Chaos is a thought-provoking study of the tensions between rationality and disorder in the years prior to the consolidation of Enlightenment models of uniform process and practice. Davis situates his readings of these literary works within changing philosophical, ethical and scientific contexts in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Yet he is, in closing, careful to emphasise the importance of tales of chaos and order to 'political-historical and ethicalpsychological ' experience (p. 189). These works recount 'a poetic cosmology . . . whose proper sense is action, suffering and desire on the human scene' (p. 189). Lloyd Davis School ofEnglish, Media Studies & Art History University of Queensland Dean, Ruth J., with the collaboration of Maureen B. M. Boulton, Anglo-Norman Literature: A Guide to Texts and Manuscripts (Anglo-Norman Text Society, Occasional Publications Series 3), London, Anglo-Norman Text Society, 1999; cloth; pp. xviii, 553; R.R.P. £35.00 members, £49.00 non-members; ISBN 0905474384. Anglo-Norman literature refuses to go away. Those of us who work in medieval English studies, unnerved by dim memories of our struggles with the vagaries ofFrench grammar and pronunciation when w e were about 16, are often reluctant to come to grips with it. But wherever w e turn, there it is, whether w e work on Middle English secular, scientific or religious texts. For one cannot balk the fact that medieval England was a tri-lingual society, its socio-linguistic pecking order for centuries Latinfirst,Anglo-Norman second, and English trailing somewhere in the distance. And yet modern scholarly attention exactly reverses this medieval state ofaffairs. To be fair, the study ofAnglo-Norman has not been made any easier by the lack of accessible reference books. There have been no equivalents of the Index of Middle English Verse, Index of Middle English Prose, or Hartung's 176 Reviews Manual of Writings in Middle English. But brace yourselves. You won't have that excuse any longer, now that the long-awaited revision of Johan Vising's slim but pioneering 1923 volume, Anglo-Norman Language and Literature, has finally appeared. (The last copy of Vising to pass through m y hands was falling apart from the use it had received over the last three-quarters of a century by four generations of students.) With the same title, but refined by its subtitle 'A Guide to Texts and Manuscripts', Professor Dean's revision is more thanfivetimes the length of its original: over 500 pages, with 986 entries and six indices. A m o n g these alone indices of manuscripts, incipits, titles (in French, English and Latin), medieval authors, sources, and patrons - one could happily amuse oneself for days. Looking through the entries themselves, one is struck by just how much detailed scholarly work has been done in this area. But it seems to have made little cumulative impact on wider Middle English studies and Anglo-Norman studies continue to be perceived as a scholarly terra nullius. This book has been long in the making: Dean has devoted her life to this project. One is awed and astonished to read that she studied under Mildred K. Pope and corresponded with Vising himself She was already publishing in the 1930s and this volume is a monument to scholarly selflessness and persistence. But as she modestly says in her Introduction, 'Thefieldis not exhausted, nor is the need for additions, corrections and new approaches'. And in response I should like to offer a few supplementary notes to those entries where I have some direct knowledge of the texts. Other readers will surely want to make their own contributions and perhaps this book could become the foundation of a database. W e do not want to wait another 75 years to benefit from new work in this field. No. 643: Ancrene Riwle is no longer dated as early as 'the end of the twelfth century...

The Index of Middle English Prose, Handlist 11: Manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge.Linne R. Mooney

<i>The Index of Middle English Prose, Handlist 11: Manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge.</i>Linne R. Mooney