Reference

`The Index of Middle English Prose when completed will be a monumental achievement' REVIEW OF ENGLISH STUDIES

Two very different collections are surveyed in this volume. The manuscripts of Pembroke College, Cambridge are typical of a medieval foundation. Its core of books is a working library of that period, representing the interests andneeds of its Fellows, very often given or bequeathed by them to the College. The collection was substantially enlarged in 1599 through the gift by William Smart of Ipswich of a large number of manuscripts which until the Reformation had belonged to the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds. By contrast the emphasis of the Fitzwilliam Museum collection is to a great extent art historical. At its heart are the manuscripts bequeathed by Lord Fitzwilliam in 1816. These were supplemented throughout the 19th century by a series of gifts and bequests, culminating in 1904 in the largest bequest to date, from Frank McClean, of some 203 manuscripts.
In spite of the different character of the two collections, both contain a range of Middle English prose items, among them Chaucer's Boece, a complete Wycliffite sermon cycle and several Paston letters [all from Pembroke], the Anlaby Cartulary, the "Canutus" pestilence tract, the Brut, Lydgate's Serpent of Division and Nicholas Love's Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ (from the Fitzwilliam).

KARI ANNE RAND is Professor of Older English Literature at the University of Oslo.

The first full listing of the pamphlets, tracts and other material collected by Samuel Pepys under the headings Maritime, Political and Religious.

Samuel Pepys's unique collection of 3000 books has been, as he directed, preserved intact at his old Cambridge college since 1724. Its various facets were not widely appreciated until the publication between 1978 and 1994 of a complete catalogue under the editorship of Robert Latham. The present volume presents a detailed conspectus of the Collections, pamphlets bound up as books. There are five such 'collections' in the Pepys Library, which are catalogued only as volumes containing a number of items on the same subject. This is a full listing of the pamphlets, tracts and other material in each of these bound collections, information which is otherwise unavailable except in the library's own archive. The collections are Maritime, Political and Religious in the present volume. Those entitled Popular, Dramatic, Shorthand, Almanacs and General will be in the second volume.

`[The series] epitomises what is best in Arthruain scholarship today.' ZEITSCHRIFT FÜ ROMANISCHE PHILOLOGIE Since the first volume in 1982, edited by Richard Barber, Arthurian Literaturehas appeared annually. Its original purposewas to offer a forum for long scholarly articles on all aspects - literary, historic, and artistic - of the Arthurian legend in Europe in the medieval and early modern periods, and bibliographical studies of all periods. Under new editors, whose first volume is Arthurian Literature 12 (1993), that original intention has been expanded to include shorter items of under 5000 words, along with the regular Updates to earlier volumes. All articles are refereed, and Arturian Literaturehas become the year-book of serious Arthurian scholarship.

The group of Hebrew manuscripts at Corpus Christi College Oxford forms one of the most important collections of Anglo-Jewish manuscripts in the world. Although few in number, the College's holdings are outstanding in rarity and value.

Corpus Christi College was founded at a time when universities were putting considerable effort into providing better facilities for the study of Greek and Hebrew. Bishop Richard Fox, the founder of Corpus Christi, and John Claymond, the college's first President, therefore ensured that the library should be adequately stocked with the necessary printed books and manuscripts. In a famous letter to Claymond in June 1519, Erasmus predicted a great future forthe College and alluded to its well-stocked trilingual library (Hebrew, Greek, and Latin).

Although few in number, the College's Hebrew manuscripts are outstanding in rarity and value. Seven Hebrew manuscripts donated byClaymond were probably produced in Oxford and Cambridgeshire in the thirteenth century. They include texts from the Hebrew Bible - the Tanakh - presented in parallel Hebrew and Latin versions, often with a literal translation into Latin written directly above the Hebrew text. It is thought that the manuscripts were the product of co-operation between Jewish and Christian scholars, and were used by non-Jews to learn Hebrew and understand the primary textsof a shared scriptural tradition. In addition to the Claymond bequest, the collection contains a second, nearly complete copy of Rashi's commentaries, and an Ashkenazi prayer book both produced in northern Europe in the twelfth century. The prayer book is one of the oldest surviving prayer books produced in Europe. It later came into the possession of a Sephardic Jew who settled in England, and who used some of its blank pages to record business. He did this in Judaeo-Arabic (Arabic written in Hebrew letters). This document is the only one written in this language in England during the Middle Ages to survive. Taken together, the Corpus collection forms one of the most important collections of Anglo-Jewish manuscripts in the world. PETER E. PORMANN is Professor of Classics and Graeco-Arabic Studies and Director of the John Rylands Research Institute at the University of Manchester.

Founded in 1284, Peterhouse is the University of Cambridge's oldest college. Its stated objective was to forward the study of theology,and before the Reformation it was a small community comprising a master and fourteen scholars.And yet by the late Middle Ages it had built up a substantial reference library. Today the college collection contains 277 manuscripts, almost all of which were at the College before the reformation, geared to the European university curriculum of the late middle ages.

Founded in 1284 by Hugh of Balsham, bishop of Ely, Peterhouse is the University of Cambridge's oldest college. The earliest surviving version of its statutes, from 1344, declares that its primary function was to forward the studyof theology. Before the Reformation it was a small community, the statutes prescribing a master and fourteen scholars. And yet by the late Middle Ages it had built up a substantial reference library, out of all proportion to this small fellowship. Today the college collection contains 277 complete manuscripts; in addition, there are more than three hundred fragments in or taken from the bindings of early printed books. Almost all of the surviving books were at the College before the Reformation, so that the present collection represents the remains of its medieval library, not the accumulation of modern donations. This gives the collection a very particular character and interest. Not many of the books contain extensive or important illumination, and this absence has been exacerbated by massive vandalism apparently mainly perpetrated in the late sixteenth century. Neither does the collection containa high proportion of rare or unique texts, but rather many geared to the European university curriculum of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. This means that it is dominated by works of Aristotle in Latin and commentarieson them, by the philosophical theology of Peter Lombard, Thomas Aquinas, Albert the Great and John Duns Scotus, by Justinian's Corpus Iuris Ciuilis and the Corpus Iuris Canonici and their commentators, and by medical texts.
The founder is said to have bequeathed to the College 'many books of theology and some representing the other branches of knowledge'. None of these can be identified today, but in fact the history of the library is fairly opaque before c. 1400. The earliest surviving account roll is from 1374/5 and the earliest library-catalogue from 1418. Nearly all of the books were acquired by donation, and it is mainly by connecting the books to their donors that onecan track the growth of the collection prior to the early fifteenth century. Fortunately, Peterhouse books are rich in information about their previous owners, particularly those who brought or gave them to the College, thanks insome measure to the habit of recording the gifts by a pious inscription in them. About sixty names of owners and donors appear in the surviving books and donors appear in the surviving books and documents.

Latest volume in a series which is "a monumental achievement" REVIEW OF ENGLISH STUDIES

The Hatton and e Musaeo manuscript collections are important donations given to the Bodleian Library during its formative years in the seventeenth century.
The Hatton collection, assembled by Christopher, first Baron Hatton,was largely acquired by the Bodleian Library in 1671. Among its Middle English prose manuscripts are religious texts, including Nicholas Love's Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ, commentaries by Richard Rolle on the psalms and ten commandments, chronicles such as the Brut and an assortment of manuscripts ranging from political prophecies and grammar treatises to compendia of medical recipes.
The e Musaeo collection, so called because it was originally an eclectic group of manuscripts stored in the librarian's study, also contains a variety of significant Middle English texts. They range from the religious and devotional: a Wycliffite New Testament, Love's Mirror, and Heinrich Suso's treatise The Seven Points of True Love and Everlasting Wisdom); to the scientific and medicinal: Chaucer's Astrolabe, Henry Daniel's Liber Uricrisiarum; and to the historical, notably the Brut and Mandeville's Travels.

Patrick J. Horner, FSC (a De LaSalle Christian Brother) is Professor of English at Manhattan College.

Latest volume in a series which is "a monumental achievement" (Review of English Studies)

This volume provides detailed descriptions of Middle English prose materials found in the important manuscript collections of seven Cambridge Colleges: Christ's, Emmanuel, Jesus, Selwyn and Sidney Sussex Colleges, Peterhouse and Trinity Hall. The texts fall roughly into two categories: religious and devotional, or scientific. The former include Wycliffite New Testaments; Emmanuel College's complete Wycliffite Bible; Richard Rolle's Commentary on the Psalms in Sidney Sussex College, and, in Trinity Hall, the Twelve Conclusions of the Lollards in a splendid manuscript designed for presentation to Richard II. In the second category, there are several of outstanding interest: Jesus College Q.G.23 is a beautifully decorated English translation of the Chirurgie of Guy de Chauliac, while Peterhouse MS 75 is the sole manuscript of The Equatorie of the Planetis.
As with all previousvolumes in the series, this Handlist concludes with an alphabetical index of Incipits and Explicits intended to form part of an eventual Index of Middle English Prose.

Angela M. Lucas is a Senior Member of Wolfson College, Cambridge.

Descriptive catalogue provides a crucial guide to one of the most important repositories of medieval manuscrips.

Merton College, Oxford, one of the oldest colleges in the University, was founded in 1264. Its library contains some 328 complete medieval manuscript books (plus several hundred fragments in, or extracted from, the bindings of early printed books), dating from the ninth to the late fifteenth century. Most of them came to the College before the Reformation, and are the remains of its medieval collection, part of which was chained in the library, part in circulation amongst the Fellowship. Together with the College's surviving medieval archive, which includes no fewer than twenty-three book-lists, this material provides an important window on intellectual life at the University of Oxford between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries, and on the manufacture, acquisition and use of the books that supported it.

This first catalogue of the medieval manuscripts since 1852 offers full and detailed descriptions of each item, supported by a colour frontispiece, 50 colour plates, and 107 black and white plates. Its introduction provides the first detailed history of Merton's medieval library, including an account of the building anddesign of the College's 'Old Library', built in the 1370s, western Europe's oldest library room still in use today; and the volume is completed with four appendices (including a comprehensive set of extracts from the College's medieval account rolls referring to its books and library) and two indexes.

RODNEY M. THOMSON is Professor of History and Honorary Research Associate in the School of History and Classics, University of Tasmania.

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Corpus Christi College was founded at a time when universities were putting considerable effort into providing better facilities for the study of Greek and Hebrew. Bishop Richard Fox, the founder of Corpus Christi, and John Claymond, the college's first President, therefore ensured that the library should be adequately stocked with Greek printed books and manuscripts. In a famous letter to Claimond in June 1519, Erasmus predicted a great future for the College and alluded to its well-stocked library.

Claymond gave the library more than half the present collection of Greek manuscripts, besides seven in Hebrew. His Greek books came largely from the collection of William Grocyn, who had gone to Florence in 1488 to study with Angelo Poliziano and Demetrius Chalcondyles, and doubtless acquired some of his manuscripts there. Remarkably, at the end of the fifteenth century there was a local source of supply for some Greek texts, in the person of Ioannes Serbopoulos, a refugee from Constantinople who had taken up residence near Reading, who supplied Grocyn with MSS 23 and 106 in 1499 and 1495 respectively. It is worth noting in passing that when Grocyn arrived in Florence the printing of Greek texts had barely begun, but by the time the College was founded the demand for manuscript copies of the principal texts used by students and scholars was much reduced, thanks largely to the editions issued by Aldus Manutius

After the substantial initial acquisitions of manuscripts the College was not fortunate enough to attract significant additions to its collection, and there is nosign that it contemplated an active policy of enlarging this element of the library's holdings. But it is worth noting that the one manuscript in the collection which is of truly outstanding importance, the ninth-century copy of Aristotle's zoological works (MS 108), was given by one of the Fellows in 1623.

The manuscripts of Corpus Christi College, Oxford present an extraordinary variety of items, from humanist texts associated with Erasmus to John Dee's alchemical books and many vernacular MSS. This is the first full catalogue, with a large number of illustrations.

The College of Corpus Christi, Oxford, was a 'Renaissance' institution both as to its foundation date (1517) and the intention of its founder, Richard Fox, bishop of Winchester. Both Fox himself and his choice as the College's first President, John Claymond, were friends of Erasmus, who approved of the foundation and especially of its library. Fox intended his foundation to be a conduit of Italian humanism to Oxford and to the English clergy. In itsextraordinary variety, this collection is a challenge to the cataloguer. Some manuscripts relate to the programme of the College's founder and first President, but most of the manuscripts reflect the particular interests of collectors from the late sixteenth century onwards. John Dee's books for example, mostly small, unpretentious and often fragmentary or made up of fragments, constitute a gold-mine for the historian of medieval chemistry and alchemy.These are supplemented by an important group of astronomical, arithmetical and medical texts. There is a substantial clutch of twelfth- and thirteenth-century manuscripts from Lanthony Priory. Noteworthy, too, is the large number of manuscripts in several vernaculars: Old and Middle English and French, Old Irish, Catalan, and even a few words of fifteenth-century Czech. The bindings of the Corpus manuscripts have been wholly neglected. Many books retain important medieval bindings, some as early as the twelfth century, and a substantial number of beautiful blind-stamped bindings of the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. A special place in the collection is occupied by the approximately 1, 200 manuscript fragments, taken from bindings of books in the library in the late nineteenth century.

New study of Malory's sources reveals much about how the work was created and about Malory himself.

The first book-length study of the sources of Sir Thomas Malory's Morte Darthur since 1921 and the first comprehensive study since that of Vinaver's three-volume edition, Malory's Library collects the results of overone hundred years of scholarship, providing new discussions of the major sources of the eight tales recognised in the standard edition. It also, for the first time, explores possible minor sources of the Morte Darthur, evaluating the case for them to see what conclusions may be drawn of Malory's life, work, and mental furnishings. In so doing, it clarifies the process by which Malory created his work. It shows that Malory carried an eclectic body of literature in his mind and worked at least partly from memory; and it illuminates his interest in characters of his own social class, the breadth of his enthusiasm for Arthurian literature, and the depth of his commitment to provide his countrymen with "the hoole book of kyng Arthur and of his noble knyghtes of the Round Table".

RALPH NORRIS teaches in the Department of English at Kennesaw State University.

English translation of a variety of texts from women's books of hours, with introduction, notes, and an interpretive essay.

The book of hours is said to have been the most popular book owned by the laity in the later middle ages. Women were often patrons or owners of such books, which were usually illustrated: indeed, the earliest surviving exemplar made in England was designed and illustrated by William de Brailes in Oxford in the mid-thirteenth century, for an unknown young lady whom he portrayed in the book several times.
This volume brings together a selection of texts taken from books of hours known to have been owned by women. While some will be familiar from bibles or prayer-books, others have to be sought in specialist publications, often embedded in other material, and a few have not until now been available at all in modern editions or translations. The texts are complemented by an introduction setting the book of hours in its context, an interpretive essay, glossary and annotated bibliography.

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Annotated bibliography of the Arthurian legend in modern English-language fiction, not only in literary texts, but in television, music, and art.

The legend of Arthur has been a source of fascination for writers and artists in English since the fifteenth century, when Thomas Malory drew together for the first time in English a variety of Arthurian stories from a number of sources to form the Morte Darthur. It increased in popularity during the Victorian era, when after Tennyson's treatment of the legend, not only authors and dramatists, but painters, musicians, and film-makers found a sourceof inspiration in the Arthurian material.
This interdisciplinary, annotated bibliography lists the Arthurian legend in modern English-language fiction, from 1500 to 2000, including literary texts, film, television, music, visual art, and games. It will prove an invaluable source of reference for students of literary and visual arts, general readers, collectors, librarians, and cultural historians--indeed, by anyone interested in the history of the waysin which Camelot has figured in post-medieval English-speaking cultures.

ANN F. HOWEY is Assistant Professor at Brock University, Canada; STEPHEN R. REIMER is Associate Professor at the University of Alberta, Canada

A catalogue of Middle English texts, largely relating to heraldry and the sciences of the time.

More than 700 manuscripts reflect Ashmole's life-long passions: heraldryand the sciences of his day: astrology, alchemy, geomancy, medicine;well over 100 contain items in Middle English. There are manuscriptsof great interest, such as the Ashmole Bestiary, but the importantitems in Middle English are no less noteworthy. Here we find the uniquecopy of an English translation of Bernard of Gordon's Lilium medicinae; a codex, Ashmole 59, entirely in thehand of John Shirley; a Wycliffite Bible and a copy of the Pore Caytif. Along with many anonymous pieces of popular astrology, there is an English translation of John Ashenden's Introductory, several copies of Johnof Burgundy's plague tract, and an elegant copy of Henry Daniel's Liber uricrisiae. There are also two copies of The Brut, and anthology manuscripts collecting vast arrays of herbal medicine, astrological techniquesand alchemical procedures.
L.M. ELDREDGE was formerly Professor in the Department of Englishat the University of Ottawa.

The collection of medieval manuscripts at Pembroke College is an important one. Its most striking feature is that the majority of MSS 1-120 came from the abbey of Bury St Edmunds, as the gift of Thomas Smart in 1599.

The collection of medieval manuscripts at Pembroke College is an important one. Its most striking feature is that the majority of MSS 1-120 came from the abbey of Bury St Edmunds, as the gift of Thomas Smart in 1599. Included among them is the famous 'Bury Gospels' (MS 120). It is one of the largest groups of monastic manuscripts to survive as an ensemble. The rest are, for the most part, the remains of the College's own medieval library, and have been little studied. In addition there are some twenty post-medieval acquisitions, including two splendid Anglo-Saxon Gospel Books.
The main part of this catalogue contains individual, detailed descriptions of some 300 MSS and several hundred binding fragments. The descriptions are preceded by an Introduction outlining the history of the collection, and are accompanied by 130 colour plates. The collection was last catalogued by M. R. James in 1911, and over a century later, this publication both updates his account, and brings to bear modern techniques of manuscript study.


Because of the Covid pandemic, the final check on MSS 235-327 was carried out after this book had been printed, and considerable additional details were discovered. This is available as a supplement to the Catalogue, which can be downloaded from the website of Pembroke College Library: https://www.pem.cam.ac.uk/college/library/manuscript-catalogue-supplement.

Part of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Collaborative Series, which now includes editions of the main texts through from A to F.

This volume offers a new edition of the E-text of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, commonly known as the Peterborough Chronicle. The E-text is of enormous importance in Chronicle studies: in its early part it is the best representativeof the Northern Recension of the Chronicle; in continuing up to the second half of the twelfth century, its span is by far the longest of all the versions. Even more than other versions of the Chronicle, it reflects transitions ofvital interest to historians, linguists, and literary scholars.
The E-text has not been edited in its entirety, except as a facsimile, for over a century. This semi-diplomatic edition offers a readable text with modern punctuation and capitalization. The interpolated material relating to Peterborough is clearly distinguished from the rest of the text. Indices of personal names, people-names, and place-names follow the text itself. The Introduction includes an account of the manuscript and a linguistic analysis of the E-text.
The E-text cannot of course be studied in isolation. This volume is part of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Collaborative Series and with its publicationthe Series now includes editions of the main texts through from A to F. A substantial section of the Introduction to the volume is devoted to a detailed discussion of E's complex textual relationships with the other versions of the Chronicle, and also with other relevant documents such as Peterborough Charters and twelfth-century Latin chronicles.

Dr SUSAN IRVINE is Senior Lecturer in the Department of English, University College, London.

English translation of a variety of texts from women's books of hours, with introduction, notes, and an interpretive essay.

The book of hours is said to have been the most popular book owned by the laity in the later Middle Ages. This volume brings together a selection of texts taken from books of hours known to have been owned by women. While some will be familiar from bibles or prayer-books, others have to be sought in specialist publications, often embedded in other material, and a few have not until now been available at all in modern editions or translations. The texts arecomplemented by an introduction setting the book of hours in its context, an interpretive essay, glossary and annotated bibliography.

Continuing work on Pepys's library, and recent discoveries, necessitate expansion of the content and entries in the original volumes. This is the first in the Supplementary Series.

Pepys's library has been, as he directed, preserved intact at his old Cambridge college since 1724. Between 1978 and 1994 a complete catalogue was published for the first time. The present title, essential to all users of the first volume in that series, N.A. Smith's Printed Books, vastly enhances the range of information available. The short-title arrangement of Printed Books is replaced by a numerical listing which follows the library's shelf-order; many entries have been extended, and where possible updated with reference to new scholarship; the location of MSS and other material treated elsewhere in the catalogue is also indicated, providing for the first time a published conspectus of the whole library. Extensive indexes have been provided for authors and ancillary contributors, subjects, printers and places of publication, and references which reflect Pepys himself and his bibliophilism.Concordances identify the Pepys books covered by STC, Wing, ESTC and other bibliographies. Dr CHARLES KNIGHTON gained his Ph D from Magdalene College, Cambridge.