scholarly journals Copying strategies of late Middle English scribes: Hand(s) and language(s) of two 15th-century manuscripts

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-172
Author(s):  
María José Carrillo-Linares
Keyword(s):  
Middle English ◽  
Bodleian Library ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
Linguistic Data ◽  
University Library ◽  
15Th Century ◽  
Linguistic Behaviour

The purpose of this paper is to compare two 15th-century manuscripts, Cambridge, University Library Kk.1.3 and Oxford, Bodleian Library Hatton 50, focusing on both paleographical and linguistic aspects. Samples from different sections of both manuscripts have been transcribed from either the original manuscripts or digital photographic reproductions. Each word and morpheme have been lexico-grammatically tagged to evaluate the scribe’s linguistic behaviour with respect to spelling, phonology, and morphology. Paleographical and linguistic data to support the two main conclusions of the study are offered. With this analysis, I conclude that both manuscripts are, almost certainly, copied by the same person. Comparison of the different copying strategies generated by this single scribe allows us to achieve a better understanding of the written material in which Middle English has been preserved.

scholarly journals Scribal Intrusion in the Texts of Gamelyn

2010 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 3-20
Author(s):  
Nila VáZquez
Keyword(s):  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
British Library ◽  
Bodleian Library ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
Corpus Christi ◽  
University Library ◽  
Christ Church ◽  
Physical Elements

Scribal Intrusion in the Texts of Gamelyn One of most important steps in the process of editing a manuscript is the identification and correction of the mistakes made by the scribe or scribes involved in its copying process in order to obtain the best text. In some cases, the changes introduced by the scribe, or by the editor who was supervising his work, can easily be noticed because we find out "physical" elements throughout the folio, such as dots under a word as a sign of expunction or carets indicating that a missing word is being added. However, there are many instances of scribal intrusion where only a detailed analysis of the text itself, or even the comparison of different manuscripts, can lead us to the identification of a modified reading. For instance, orthographical changes due to the dialectal provenance of the copyist, or altered lines with a regular aspect. The purpose of this article is to analyse the scribal amendments that appear in some of the earliest copies of The tale of Gamelyn: Corpus Christi College Oxford MS 198 (Cp), Christ Church Oxford MS 152 (Ch), Fitzwilliam Museum McClean 181 (Fi), British Library MS Harley 7334 (Ha4), Bodleian Library MS Hatton Donat. 1 (Ht), British Library MS Lansdowne 851 (La), Lichfield Cathedral MS 29 (Lc), Cambridge University Library Mm. 2.5 (Mm), Petworth House MS 7 (Pw) and British Library MS Royal 18 C.II (Ry2).

scholarly journals Reseña de Edurne Garrido-Anes (2020) A Middle English Version of the Circa Instans, Middle English Texts Series, 59. Heidelberg: Winter Verlag, pp. 209. ISBN 978-3-8253-4766-6

2021 ◽  
pp. 189-192
Author(s):  
María José Esteve-Ramos
Keyword(s):  
Middle English ◽  
Medieval England ◽  
Natural Consequence ◽  
English Version ◽  
English Edition ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
University Library ◽  
Late Medieval England ◽  
Scholarly Attention

Medical and scientific manuscripts have been the interest of scholarly attention in recent decades and as a natural consequence, editions of unstudied material have flourished (Alonso-Almeida, 2014 or Marqués-Aguado, T. et alii, 2008, among others). This book is a Middle English edition of one of the most popular works circulating in the late medieval England, known as Circa Instans. This book presents a revised edition of the text found in CUL MS Es 1.13. ff 1r-91v, housed in the Cambridge University Library.

LIX. The Address of the Soul to the Body

PMLA ◽  
1935 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 957-983 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rudolph Willard
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
The Body ◽  
Bodleian Library ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
English Poem ◽  
Conspicuous Feature ◽  
University Library ◽  
Intermediate Time ◽  
The Moment

There exist in Old English a number of compilations in which an address of the soul to its body is a conspicuous feature. The best known is the poem in the Vercelli and the Exeter Books, in which the soul returns to its body once a week and communes with it, the sinful soul reproaching it vituperatively, the righteous comforting it lovingly and joyously. The fourth Vercelli homily has a remarkable scene, an elaborated account of the judgement of the soul at Doomsday, in which the souls address their bodies as they stand in the presence of the Judge. The Last Judgement is again the scene of an address, and that in one of the homilies presented by Assmann. There is, finally, the Old English vision, printed by Thorpe and Napier, of the bringing forth of the soul, wherein the newly-released soul of a sinner vituperates the body it has just left. To this literature, I wish to add passages from two unpublished Old English homilies, in which the address is made, not at the moment of death, as in Thorpe and Napier, nor at the Last Judgement, as in Vercelli Homily iv and in Assmann, but at some intermediate time, when the soul returns intermittently to its body for that purpose, as in the Old English poem. These two texts are Homilies ii and iv of MS. Junius 85 of the Bodleian Library, and Homily xl of MS. Ii. 1.33 of the Cambridge University Library.

The Findern Anthology

PMLA ◽  
1954 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
pp. 610-642
Author(s):  
Rossell Hope Robbins
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Middle English ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
Large Group ◽  
University Library

Major manuscript anthologies of Middle English secular lyrics are rare; apart from the very early Harley MS. 2253 and the Charles d'Orleans translations, there are not more than three large collections: the early-sixteenth-century Bodleian MS. Rawlinson C. 813 (S. C. 12653), the Newton holograph, and the present manuscript, Ff. 1. 6 of the Cambridge University Library, which contains many well-known longer secular poems as well as a large group of short lyric poems.

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