Medieval Scribes Research Articles

The Complete Romances of Chrétien de Troyes by David Staines

Although Jeffrey in People of the Book is responding to developments in literary theorizing over the past two decades, he has wisely not allowed those ideas to set his agenda. The expansive perspective of the study turns contemporary literary theory into another episode in the long history of hermeneutics. Of course, readers may quibble with his choice of represen­ tative writers, but those he has chosen effectively serve his purposes. Both as a guide to the animating values of hundreds of years of Western literary tradition and as an attempt to sketch the features of a Christian aesthetic, David Jeffrey’s book is invaluable. NOTE 1 Contemporary Literary Theory: A Christian Appraisal, Eds. Clarence Walhout and Leland Ryken. Grand Rapids MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1991. Da v i d a . r e n t / Centennial College The Complete Romances of Chrétien de Troyes. Trans, with an introduction by David Staines (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990). xxix, 542. $57.50 (U.S.) cloth, $12.95 paper. Chrétien de Troyes, who lived in the second half of the twelfth century, created the literary romance of King Arthur, using both oral Celtic stories and written chronicles as his inspiration. His romances are the wellspring of the medieval Arthurian tradition. They are also the first literature since antiquity in which women play complex and sustained roles, and in which gender relations are decisive to the realization of human potential. Written in musical and witty Old French octosyllabic couplets, they are not easy to translate. David Staines has captured both the literal sense of the original and its poetic power in a dignified, modern idiom. There are good reasons to publish and possess Chrétien’s works in a col­ lected edition. Unlike most medieval authors, he named himself at some point in his stories, leaving no doubt about his authorship. His self-awareness as an author shaped the medieval reception of his works: three manuscripts transmit all of his Arthurian works, and two others contain three. Such clustering is unusual, and it suggests that some medieval scribes and readers were aware of his romances as an oeuvre. Events in two of the romances, The Knight of the Cart (Lancelot) and The Knight with the Lion (Yvain), are connected in time through an intricate set of references, showing that they were to be read and interpreted as a pair. And, of course, Arthur’s court is consistently depicted as the place from which knights set out and to 178 which they return for social recognition. One could wish only that Staines had translated Chretien’s two lyric poems so that the connections between lyric and romance could be as easily observed and studied as the connections among the romances themselves. Three other collections of Chretien’s romances are currently available in English, and I will make a comparison below.1 Staines has one significant ad­ vantage over these others, since he alone translates a fascinating work called William of England. Its author refers to himself as “Chrétien,” and scholars have long debated his identification with Chretien de Troyes. Staines does not take sides in the debate, but rather includes William of England on con­ textual grounds. The author, if not Chrétien de Troyes himself, was perhaps a student or disciple “familiar with the twelfth-century romance world and, in particular, with some of the romances of Chrétien de Troyes” (xxvi). The only other English translation was published in 1904 by W.G. Collingwood.2 Though recently reprinted, its usefulness is diminished by the fact that it combines two differing versions of the narrative. Staines aptly describes William of England as “a romance with hagiographic overtones in which the goal is not knightly success but endurance and survival in the face of trials and tortures” (xxvi). Though it is a spiritual tale, divine interventions in the secular realm are restrained. What makes the text so interesting is its combination of improbable twists of plot and realistic descriptions of life beyond the courtly world, especially the opportu­ nities for smart and motivated people to get ahead as merchants. The story begins when a heavenly voice orders King William into exile as a...

The Register of William Bateman, Bishop of Norwich, 1344-1355, Volume I, ed. by Phyllis E. Pobst

88BOOK REVIEWS ism.The history in and around John's text, and not John's loose references to Franciscan history,merited Stracke-Neumann's attention. For it is to that history that she has contributed her sound and welcome study. David Flood, O.F.M. Montréal, Province de Québec The Register ofWiUiam Bateman, Bishop ofNorwich, 1344-1355,Volume I. Edited by Phyllis E. Pobst. [The Canterbury and York Society,Volume 84.] (Rochester, NewYork:The Boydell Press. 1996. Pp. xxxiv, 135. $53.00.) Bishop WUUam Bateman's diocese of Norwich counted 1,294 parishes. Among the chief sources regarding those parishes are the records of institutions to benefices which compose the registers of the bishops of Norwich. Bateman's register is the first from Norwich to receive a modern edition, for which medievalists are in PhyUis Pobst's debt. Pobst's introduction uses the register to revise in some points Alexander Hamilton Thompson's earlier account of Bateman's career. (There is scant evidence that Bateman conducted a visitation of the diocese in 1345, and he was less of an absentee than Thompson supposed.) This register consists almost solely of material relating to appropriations of, and institutions to, benefices. Pobst notes that such material sheds Ught on the Black Death, from notices of poverty resulting from the plague used to justify appropriations to the steep increase in institutions as rectors and vicars perished. And yet, the diocesan machinery ground on; Pobst finds no sign of disruption in the register itself beyond some institutions squeezed into the lower margins and some folios apparently laid against others whUe the ink was still wet. Pobst's codicological discussion is exceptionally fine, even given the high standards of the Canterbury andYork Society. Readers learn, for example, about the prickings of the MS, the measurements of individual writs sewn into the volume, where scribes have left lines blank, and how many.The palaeographical analysis is similarly exact.The editor identifies fifteen medieval scribes and five modern ones who left traces in the MS. She has worked rigorously to give the reader as accurate an account as possible of the MS within the limits of a calendared edition. Fortunately, the Latin texts of some routine entries, as weU as those of special interest, are promised for the forthcoming second volume . The apparatus is also exemplary in elucidating the text. Pobst identifies aUases of persons appearing in the register using other sources, provides alternate place names for certain sites, and cross-indexes entries with others in the register. Sometimes the rationale for these notices is given at unusual length (e.g., no. 496 n. 36), a helpful practice for readers getting to know the diocese. BOOK REVIEWS89 My reservations are niggling. Pobst generally specifies the nature of the entries in the register, noting which are "letters patent" (e.g., no. 8), which are simply "letters" (e.g., no. 1 1), and which are memoranda (e.g., no. 39).The nature of a few entries is, however, less clear. No. 98, for example, is described as a "letter ofcommission." Does that mean that no. 97, described simply as a"commission," is to be understood as a memorandum and not a letter? If a memorandum, why not an explicit notice as in no. 39? Consistency in such matters is helpful in a calendar. A note for no. 816 explaining why Pobst concludes the letter of induction was sent to the archdeacon of Sudbury rather than to the archdeacon's official would also be useful. But these are smaU desiderata for an exceUent edition . Michael Burger Mississippi Universityfor Women The Reluctant Emperor: A Biography ofJohn Cantacuzene, Byzantine Emperor and Monk, c. 1295-1383- By Donald M. Nicol. (New York: Cambridge University Press. 1996. Pp. xiv. 203. $3995.) Some dozen years ago I met Donald M. Nicol at a conference. Reflecting on our mutual interest in the late Byzantine period, we discussed the perennial trend toward overspecialization at the expense ofworks with broader perspectives and grander themes. He summarized this point of view by advising me, then a graduate student, to write "big books." Throughout a distinguished scholarly career Nicol has been true to this counsel, and for the benefit...

The Trope of the Scribe and the Question of Literary Authority in the Works of Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe

Previous articleNext article No AccessThe Trope of the Scribe and the Question of Literary Authority in the Works of Julian of Norwich and Margery KempeLynn Staley JohnsonLynn Staley Johnson Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Speculum Volume 66, Number 4Oct., 1991 The journal of the Medieval Academy of America Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2307/2864634 Views: 110Total views on this site Citations: 24Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1991 Medieval Academy of AmericaPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Shawn Normandin Ecophobia and the Knight’s Tale, (Jun 2018): 51–84.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90457-3_2Peter A. Hancock On the Nature of Vigilance, Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 59, no.11 (Feb 2017): 35–43.https://doi.org/10.1177/0018720816655240Julie Orlemanski Margery’s “Noyse” and Distributed Expressivity, (Jan 2015): 123–138.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-39706-5_8Julia Marie Smith The Book of Margery Kempe and the Rhetorical Chorus: An Alternative Method for Recovering Women ’s Contributions to the History of Rhetoric, Journal for the History of Rhetoric 17, no.22 (Jul 2014): 179–203.https://doi.org/10.5325/jhistrhetoric.17.2.0179Julia Marie Smith The Book of Margery Kempe and the Rhetorical Chorus: An Alternative Method for Recovering Women ’s Contributions to the History of Rhetoric, Advances in the History of Rhetoric 17, no.22 (Jul 2014): 179–203.https://doi.org/10.1080/15362426.2014.933720Michelle M. Sauer Divine Orgasm and Self-Blazoning: The Fragmented Body of the Female Medieval Visionary, (Jan 2013): 123–143.https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137037411_7Erin T. Chandler The Present Time of Things Past: Julian of Norwich's Appropriation of St. Augustine's Generative Theory of Memory, Rhetoric Review 31, no.44 (Oct 2012): 389–404.https://doi.org/10.1080/07350198.2012.711197Annie Sutherland The Middle English Mystics, (Apr 2010): 85–99.https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444324174.ch7Ruth Summar McIntyre Margery's “Mixed Life”: Place Pilgrimage and the Problem of Genre in The Book of Margery Kempe, English Studies 89, no.66 (Dec 2008): 643–661.https://doi.org/10.1080/00138380802252974Anne L. Clark Guardians of the Sacred: The Nuns of Soissons and the Slipper of the Virgin Mary, Church History 76, no.44 (Feb 2020): 724–749.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0009640700500031Santha Bhattacharji Julian of Norwich, (Nov 2007): 523–536.https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470996355.ch32Jane Chance Unhomely Margery Kempe and St. Catherine of Siena: “Comunycacyon” and “Conuersacion” as Homily, (Jan 2007): 99–126.https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230605596_5Madeleine Jeay Marie Robine et Constance de Rabastens : humbles femmes du peuple, guides de princes et de papes, (Jan 2002): 579–594.https://doi.org/10.4000/books.psorbonne.14091 Gothic Ornament and Sartorial Peasants, (Jan 1998): 19–57.https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822379027-002 English America, (Jan 1998): 58–82.https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822379027-003 Bede’s Blush, (Jan 1998): 83–101.https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822379027-004 The Devil’s Anal Eye, (Jan 1998): 105–134.https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822379027-005 Genders, Bodies, Borders, (Jan 1998): 135–162.https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822379027-006 Humanist History and the Haunting of Virtual Technologies, (Jan 1998): 165–184.https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822379027-007 Stranded Histories, (Jan 1998): 185–201.https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822379027-008 Notes, (Jan 1998): 203–273.https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822379027-009 Works Cited, (Jan 1998): 275–305.https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822379027-010 Nicholas Watson The Composition of Julian of Norwich's Revelation of Love, Speculum 68, no.33 (Oct 2015): 637–683.https://doi.org/10.2307/2864969 Kathleen Biddick Genders, Bodies, Borders: Technologies of the Visible, Speculum 68, no.22 (Oct 2015): 389–418.https://doi.org/10.2307/2864558

The Dark Ages Return to Fifth-Century Britain: The 'Restored' Gallic Chronicle Exploded

It is an unfortunate fact that historians of the Later Roman Empire are forced to derive much of their chronological material from chronicles and consular fasti. I say unfortunate, for chronicles are not nearly as accurate as modern historians would like them to be. This is because they were an exceptionally difficult type of history to compile, prone to error at every turn, from the gathering of sources to the copying of the final text, and because most chroniclers were essentially ‘amateurs’, having little experience in doing research, thinking or writing historically, and usually separated by considerable time and space from the events they were describing. These facts constantly rankle with modern historians, and some who have had to rely heavily on chronicles rather than attempt methodological or historiographical explanations of why they believe particular entries in chronicles are incorrectly dated, have often taken the easy way out and tried to solve their problems by emending them away: they alter the texts themselves, offering as excuses the assumptions (usually only implicit) that the chroniclers were skilful historians with access to reliable sources, that they were able to present their information accurately and carefully, and that the texts as we have them now were corrupted by ignorant and careless medieval scribes.

Dialectal Analysis and Linguistically Composite Texts in Middle English

In recent years students of medieval literature and its history have begun increasingly to appreciate the value of their primary source materials the manuscripts. Editors of Middle English texts are less apt nowadays, having found their best text, to jettison as worthless all other surviving copies and renderings of it. It is recognized that a corrupt text may reflect the activity of a contemporary editor, critic, or adapter rather than that of a merely careless copyist. Medieval scribes, whether professional or amateur, clerical or lay, were producing works of literature for their original consumers; close examination of scribal behavior, whether it be script, spelling, or choice and ordering of material, provides insight into the way literary texts were received, understood, and disseminated. The studies of paleographer, dialectologist, textual critic, and literary historian can and should be complementary. The work of the Middle English Dialect Project (now the Gayre Institute for Medieval English and Scottish Dialectology) in Edinburgh has, since its inception in 1953, upheld the usefulness, and indeed necessity, in medieval studies of examining each scribal text separately as a valuable source in its own right. It is obvious perhaps that in order to place geographically the linguistic usage of a scribe his output must be subjected to dialectal analysis. It may be less obvious that such dialectal analysis often provides the means to do far more than place a scribe on the map. By examining the language of scribal texts, it may be possible to identify and isolate archetypal and even authorial spellings. In 1978 Ian Doyle and Malcolm Parkes demonstrated that two of the earliest copyists of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales worked also on manuscripts of Gower.' Comparison of the linguistic usage of these and other London scribes enabled Michael Samuels to identify the most likely forms of language used by Chaucer himself. Samuels judges Chaucer's own spellings to be almost identical with those

Sir John Paston’s “Grete Boke”: A Descriptive Catalogue, with an Introduction, of British Library MS Lansdowne 285 by G. A. Lester

STUDIES IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER buried. And that would be a very great shame because the text is an excellent one. Above all, it is a conservative and sensible text. If Lawton's "first draft" theory has removed the temptation to "restore" alliteration to lines faulty in the MS, then it should be applauded, if for that reason alone. In general Lawton has the rare wisdom to emend with restraint even when the sense ofthe MS is highly unclear. In the main he follows or agrees with Skeat, but in a number of instances he offers some significant varia­ tions. Many ofthese are clearly superior to Skeat's readings. One of these, "of scute red" (1. 71) for Skeat's "of-scutered" not only restores sense to a baffling passage, but once pointed out, seems so obvious that one is amazed that it was not spotted long ago. Other fine readings include "[a]redde" (1. 132), "sei[3]en" (1. 208), and "co[nn]e" (1. 440). More difficult to justify are "str[iu]en stoures to medlen" (1. 507), "beknowe [I]" (1. 665), and the tense change in l. 692. A few ofhis emendations seem to have been borrowed, without acknowledgement, from Skeat, but exam­ ination reveals that they undoubtedly owe more to common sense (e.g. "ky[n]g" [l. 151] and "anoy[g]nten" [l. 304]) than to any previous editor. Finally, Lawton has given students a clear and readable text. While it is true that Skeat's indication of expanded contractions, punctuation, and capitalization may give a better idea ofthe MS, Lawton's updated editorial technique gives the modern student a better and less cluttered idea ofthe actual poem. Certainly, this edition is likely to remain the standard for years to come. JERRY 1. BALL University of Tennessee G. A. LESTER. SirJohn Paston's "Grete Bake": A Descriptive Catalogue, with an Introduction, of British Library MS Lansdowne 285. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1984. Pp. 197. £17.50. Recent research by Doyle and Parkes1 has established that fifteenth­ century scribes were often independent craftsmen employed on a particu1 A. I. Doyle and M. B. Parkes, "The Production ofCopies ofthe Canterbury Tales and the Confessio Amantis in the Early Fifteenth Century," in M. B. Parkes and A. G. Watson, eds., Medieval Scribes, Manuscrzpts, andLibran·es: Essays Presentedto N. R. Ker (London: Scalar Press, 1978), pp. 163-210. 222 REVIEWS lar commission. Such an independent scribe was William Ebesham, fre­ quently employed by SirJohn Paston (d. 1479). A letter and bill survive in the Paston correspondence listing items he had copied for SirJohn, among them a "Grete Boke," identifiable as London, British Library, MS Lans­ downe 285, fols. 2-202 (fols. 203-23 were added in the sixteenth century). This bespoke manuscript is described and catalogued by G. A. Lester in Sir John Paston 's "Grete Bake." Lester's book is in two parts: the Introduction, which describes the makeup and history of the manuscript, and the Descriptive Catalogue of texts, which provides a full background to the circumstances of their composition. By such a detailed treatment Lester usefully illustrates the literary and social context in which the manuscript was produced, showing both how texts could be transmitted by circulation among friends and acquaintances and how the choice ofparticular items reflects Paston's own activities and connections at court. The Lansdowne manuscript contains twelve texts (including an English prose translation of Vegetius's Epitoma rei mzlitaris, and Lydgate and Burgh's Book ofGovernance a/Kings andPrinces), and Lester shows that they have been copied, probably directly, from New York, Pierpont MorganLibrary, MS 775, which had beencommissionedbefore 1461 by Sir John Astley. Two items in the compilation (Morgan MS, fols. 275v-82v, Lansdowne MS, fols. 15r-16r) celebrate Astley's own deeds of arms. Both Astley and Paston were interested in chivalric matters, and moved in the same milieu. As Lester suggests, Paston could well have borrowed Astley's book for Ebesham to copy. There is thus no need to presuppose, as C. F. Buhler did,2 the existence of a commercial scriptorium whose director retained a single definitive exemplar for the production ofmultiple copies to explain how these...

A Tribute to a Palaeographer - M. B. Parkes & A. G. Watson, eds., Medieval scribes, manuscripts and libraries: essays presented to N. R. Ker. Pp. xvi + 396; 83 plates, 18 diagrams. London: Scolar Press, 1978. £30.

A Tribute to a Palaeographer - M. B. Parkes & A. G. Watson, eds., Medieval scribes, manuscripts and libraries: essays presented to N. R. Ker. Pp. xvi + 396; 83 plates, 18 diagrams. London: Scolar Press, 1978. £30. - Volume 30 Issue 2

Reviews

Medieval Scribes, Manuscripts and Libraries. Essays presented to N. R. Ker Edited by M. B. Parkes and Andrew G. Watson London, Scolar Press, 1978 395 PP. £30 The Handwriting of English Documents L. C. Hector Facsimile of the second edition of 1966 (published by Edward Arnold) Dorking, Kohler and Coombes, 1980 136 pp., 36 plates. £7.50 Manorial Records of Cuxham, Oxfordshire, c.1200–1359 Edited by P. D. A. Harvey Historical Manuscripts Commission JP 23 and Oxfordshire Record Society, vol. 50 London, H.M.S.O., 1976 xviii + 839 pp. £25 Calendar of Signet Letters of Henry IV and Henry V (1399–1422) Edited by J. L. Kirby London, H.M.S.O., 1978 xii + 244 pp. £30 English Legal Manuscripts, vol. II: Catalogue of the Manuscript Year Books, Readings, and Law Reports in Lincoln's Inn, the Bodleian Library and Gray's Inn J. H. Baker Zug, Switzerland: Inter Documentation Company AG, 1978 x + 239 pp., illus. Swiss Francs 98 The Papers of Nathaniel Bacon of Stiff key, volume I, 1556—1577 Edited by A. Hassell Smith, Gillian M. Baker and R. W. Kenny University of East Anglia, 1979 li + 354 pp. £15 (available only from the Centre of East Anglian Studies, University of East Anglia, Earlham Hall, Norwich, NR4 7TJ) Calendar of Assize Records. Essex Indictments, Elizabeth I Edited by J. S. Cockburn London, H.M.S.O., 1978 vii + 761 pp. £50 Joshua Johnson’ s letterbook, 1771–1774: letters from a merchant in London to his partners in Maryland Edited by Jacob M. Price London Record Society, 1979 xviii + 181 pp. £5 to members, £10 to non‐members The history of Lancashire County Council, 1889 to 1974 Edited by J. D. Marshall London, Martin Robertson, 1977 xiv+456 pp.£9.50 Office Holders in Modern Britain, VIII. Foreign Office Officials, 1782–1870 Compiled by J. M. Gollinge London, Institute of Historical Research, University of London, 1979 x+83 pp. £6.50 Index : the Papers of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 Compiled by John P. Butler Washington, D.C., National Archives and Records Service, 1978. 5 vols. Britain and the Dominions. A Guide to business and related records in the United Kingdom concerning Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa Charles A. Jones G. K. Hall & Co., Boston, Mass., 1978 xviii + 253 pp. $30 Archivbestände zur Wirtschafts‐ und Sozialgeschichte der Weimarer Republik (Schriften des Bundesarchivs 29) Edited by T. Trumpp & R. Könne, with additional contributions Boppard am Rhein, Harald Boldt Verlag, 1979 380 pp. Records management in British universities Michael Bott and J. A. Edwards Reading, The University Library, 1978 vi + 38 pp‐£i SPINDEX Users Conference. Proceedings at a meeting held at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, March 31 and April 1, 1978 Edited by H. Thomas Hickerson New York, 1979.$5 Crime and Punishment in Gloucestershire, 1700–1880 Compiled by P. A. Howard, B. S. Smith and N. A. Wratten Signal Teaching Aid, Gloucestershire Record Office, 1978. £1.25 Railways in Essex (until 1923) Compiled by R. G. E. Wood Seax Teaching Portfolio no. 10, Essex Record Office, 1978. £1.60

M. B. Parkes and Andrew G. Watson, eds., Medieval Scribes, Manuscripts & Libraries: Essays Presented to N. R. Ker. London: Scolar Press, 1978. Pp. xvi, 395; frontispiece portrait and 83 black-and-white plates. $50.

M. B. Parkes and Andrew G. Watson, eds., Medieval Scribes, Manuscripts & Libraries: Essays Presented to N. R. Ker. London: Scolar Press, 1978. Pp. xvi, 395; frontispiece portrait and 83 black-and-white plates. $50.

Medieval Scribes, Manuscripts and Libraries. Essays presented to N. R. Ker. Edited by M. B. Parkes and A. G. Watson. 26·5×17·5 cm. Pp. xv+393+83 pls. London: Scolar Press, 1978. £30·00.

Medieval Scribes, Manuscripts and Libraries. Essays presented to N. R. Ker. Edited by M. B. Parkes and A. G. Watson. 26·5×17·5 cm. Pp. xv+393+83 pls. London: Scolar Press, 1978. £30·00. - Volume 59 Issue 1

SEPTEM VERBA A CHRISTO W STAROPOLSKICH APOKRYFACH NOWOTESTAMENTALNYCH W PERSPEKTYWIE ŹRÓDŁOZNAWCZEJ I LINGWISTYCZNEJ. CZĘŚĆ PIERWSZA: ŹRÓDŁA

This article is the first of two parts of a description of the motif of the seven words uttered by the crucified Christ in old Polish biblical and apocrypha narrations. The author presents the origin of the motif, characteristics of old Polish texts in which it occurred; the most important differences have been highlighted in the feature arrangement of the specific fragments of old Polish Passion of Jesus. The body of the article is represented by depiction of the sources of the seven words uttered by Christ on the cross, presentation of various ways of medieval scribes using the Holy Scriptures and an attempt to capture the motif severing itself from the original source. While the words uttered by Jesus on the cross come from the Gospels, neither of the four evangelists confirmed all of them. The chronology of the words is also arbitrary. In all old Polish apocrypha containing a description of Christ’s death on the cross, the motif of the seven words plays an important role and has been analysed with respect to the content and the vocabulary. The second part of the characteristics will be devoted to the linguistic development of the description of the motif in question.