Western Illuminated Manuscripts

Western Illuminated Manuscripts
Author: Paul Binski
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 725
Release: 2011-03-31
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1139500600

Cambridge University Library's collection of illuminated manuscripts is of international significance. It originates in the medieval university and stands alongside the holdings of the colleges and the Fitzwilliam Museum. The University Library contains major European examples of medieval illumination from the ninth to the sixteenth centuries, with acknowledged masterpieces of Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance book art, as well as illuminated literary texts, including the first complete Chaucer manuscript. This catalogue provides scholars and researchers easy access to the University Library's illuminated manuscripts, evaluating the importance of many of them for the very first time. It contains descriptions of famous manuscripts, for example the Life of Edward the Confessor attributed to Matthew Paris, as well as hundreds of lesser-known items. Beautifully illustrated throughout, the catalogue contains descriptions of individual manuscripts with up-to-date assessments of their style, origins and importance, together with bibliographical references.

German Literature of the Early Middle Ages

German Literature of the Early Middle Ages
Author: Brian Murdoch
Publisher: Camden House
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2004
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9781571132406

A detailed, contextualized picture of the very beginnings of writing in German from around 750 to 1100. This second volume of the set not only presents a detailed picture of the beginnings of writing in German from its first emergence as a literary language from around 750 to 1100, but also places those earliest writings into a context. The first stages of German literature existed within a manuscript culture, so careful consideration is given to what constitutes the actual texts, but German literature also arose within a society that had recently been Christianized -- through the medium of Latin. Therefore what we understand by literature in Germany at this early period must include a great amount of writing in Latin. Thus the volume looks in detail at Latin works in prose and verse, but with an eye upon the interaction between Latin and German writings. Some of the material in the newly written German language is not literary in the modern sense of the word, but makes clear the difficulties and indeed the triumphs of the establishing of a written literary language. Individual chapters look first at the earliest translations and functional literature in German (including charms and prayers); next, the examination of heroic material juxtaposes the Hildebrandlied with the Christian Ludwigslied and with Latin writings like Waltharius and the panegyrics; Otfrid's work -- the Gospel-poem in German -- is given its due prominence; the smaller German texts and the later prose works are fully treated; as is chronicle-writing in German and Latin. Old High German literature was a trickle compared to the flood of the Latin that surrounded (and influenced) it, but its importance is undeniable: that trickle became a river. Contributors: Linda Archibald, Graeme Dunphy, Stephen Penn, Christopher Wells, Jonathan West, Brian Murdoch. Brian Murdoch is Professor of German at the University of Stirling, Scotland.

English Caroline Script and Monastic History

English Caroline Script and Monastic History
Author: D. N. Dumville
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Total Pages: 228
Release: 1993
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780851153230

An analysis and study of Caroline script from 200 years of ecclesiastical and secular records reveals important historical detail relating to late Anglo-Saxon England.

Early Medieval Studies in Memory of Patrick Wormald

Early Medieval Studies in Memory of Patrick Wormald
Author: Stephen David Baxter
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Total Pages: 608
Release: 2009
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780754663317

Above all these studies present fundamental reinterpretations, not only of published written sources and their underlying manuscript evidence, but also of the development of some of the dominant ideas of that era. In both their scope and the quality of the scholarship, the collection stands as a fitting tribute to the work and life of Patrick Wormald and his lasting contribution to early medieval studies."--BOOK JACKET.

The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain

The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain
Author: Lotte Hellinga
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 846
Release: 1999-12-09
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780521573467

This volume of The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain presents an overview of the century-and-a-half between the death of Chaucer in 1400 and the incorporation of the Stationers' Company in 1557. The profound changes during that time in social, political and religious conditions are reflected in the dissemination and reception of the written word. The manuscript culture of Chaucer's day was replaced by an ambience in which printed books would become the norm. The emphasis in this collection of essays is on the demand and use of books. Patterns of ownership are identified as well as patterns of where, why and how books were written, printed, bound, acquired, read and passed from hand to hand. The book trade receives special attention, with emphasis on the large part played by imports and on links with printers in other countries, which were decisive for the development of printing and publishing in Britain.

Form and Content of Instruction in Anglo-Saxon England in the Light of Contemporary Manuscript Evidence

Form and Content of Instruction in Anglo-Saxon England in the Light of Contemporary Manuscript Evidence
Author: Patrizia Lendinara
Publisher: Brepols Publishers
Total Pages: 564
Release: 2007
Genre: Education
ISBN:

The essays collected in this volume focus on a prominent aspect of Anglo-Saxon culture: educational texts and the Insular manuscripts which have preserved them. The English imported manuscripts and texts from the Continent, whilst a series of foreign masters, from Theodore of Tarsus to Abbo of Fleury, brought with them knowledge of works which were being studied in Continental schools. Although monastic education played a leading role for the entire Anglo-Saxon period, it was in the second half of the tenth and early eleventh centuries that it reached its zenith, with its renewed importance and the presence of energetic masters such as Aethelwold and Aelfric. The indebtedness to Continental programs of study is evident at each step, beginning with the Disticha Catonis. Nevertheless, a number of texts initially designed for a Latin-speaking milieu appear to have been abandoned (for instance in the field of grammar) in favour of new teaching tools. Besides texts which were part of the standard curriculum, Anglo-Saxon manuscripts provide abundant evidence of other learning and teaching instruments, in particular those for a specialized class of laymen, the Old English lAece, the healer or physician. Medicine occupies a relevant place in the book production of late Anglo-Saxon England and, in this field too, knowledge from very far afield was preserved and reshaped. All these essays, many by leading scholars in the various fields, explore these issues by analysing the actual manuscripts, their layout and contents. They show how miscellaneous collections of treatises in medieval codices had an internal logic, and highlight how crucial manuscripts are to the study of medieval culture. Contributors: Filippa Alcamesi, Isabella Andorlini, Anne Van Arsdall, Luisa Bezzo, Sandor Chardonnens, Maria Amalia D'Aronco, Maria Caterina De Bonis, Claudia Di Sciacca, Michael Drout, Concetta Giliberto, Florence Eliza Glaze, Joyce Hill, Loredana Lazzari, Patrizia Lendinara, Danielle Maion, Ignazio Mauro Mirto, Alexander R. Rumble, Hans Sauer, Loredana Teresi.

Anglo-Saxon Glosses and Glossaries

Anglo-Saxon Glosses and Glossaries
Author: Patrizia Lendinara
Publisher: Variorum Publishing
Total Pages: 456
Release: 1999
Genre: History
ISBN:

Professor Lendinara here offers a detailed analysis of glosses, their origin, aims and use, within the framework of Anglo-Saxon schools, monasteries and society. Four of the pieces have been specially translated from Italian, and she opens the volume with a major new introduction to the field. The work includes the publication of glossaries, and explores the transmission and relationship of different texts, into the first centuries after the Norman Conquest. Taken together, these articles set out the role and importance of glossaries in the intellectual world of the Anglo-Saxon monastery, the cells where monks were studying, and in the schools.