John Northwood’s Miscellany Revisited

Insular Books ◽  
2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy Scase
Keyword(s):  
Middle English ◽  
British Library ◽  
Book Production ◽  
The West ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Related Material ◽  
English Verse ◽  
West Midlands ◽  
Late Medieval England

London, British Library, MS Additional 37787, a volume of prayers and other devotions and related material, was part-edited by Nita S. Baugh as A Worcestershire Miscellany Compiled by John Northwood c. 1400 (1956). Baugh’s title was based on ownership inscriptions of John Northwood, monk at Bordesley Abbey, Worcestershire, and members of the Throckmorton family also of Worcestershire. These associations have made the manuscript an important witness in narratives about Cistercian participation in the production and circulation of Middle English verse manuscripts in the West Midlands and the role of monasteries in fostering vernacular writing and book production, including the Vernon and Simeon manuscripts. This chapter proposes that this view is called into question by careful codicological examination of the volume. Through challenging these propositions it suggests alternative ways to explore and explain the production of books containing vernacular prayers and devotions in late medieval England.

scholarly journals Irish merchants and seamen in late medieval England

2000 ◽  
Vol 32 (125) ◽  
pp. 22-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy R. Childs
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Opposite Direction ◽  
General Context ◽  
Medieval England ◽  
The West ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
The Status ◽  
Late Medieval England ◽  
The Middle Ages

Most studies of Anglo-Irish relations in the middle ages understandably concentrate on the activity of the English in Ireland, and unintentionally but inevitably this can leave the impression that the movement of people was all one way. But this was not so, and one group who travelled in the opposite direction were some of the merchants and seamen involved in the Anglo-Irish trade of the period. Irish merchants and seamen travelled widely and could be found in Iceland, Lisbon, Bordeaux, Brittany and Flanders, but probably their most regular trade remained with their closest neighbour and political overlord: England. They visited most western and southern English ports, but inevitably were found most frequently in the west, especially at Chester and Bristol. The majority of them stayed for a few days or weeks, as long as their business demanded. Others settled permanently in England, or, perhaps more accurately, re-settled in England, for those who came to England both as settlers and visitors were mainly the Anglo-Irish of the English towns in Ireland and not the Gaelic Irish. This makes it difficult to estimate accurately the numbers of both visitors and settlers, because the status of the Anglo-Irish was legally that of denizen, and record-keepers normally had no reason to identify them separately. They may, therefore, be hard to distinguish from native Englishmen of similar name outside the short periods when governments (central or urban) temporarily sought to restrict their activities. However, the general context within which they worked is quite clear, and this article considers three main aspects of that context: first, the pattern of the trade which attracted Irish merchants to England; second, the role of the Irish merchants and seamen in the trade; and third, examples of individual careers of merchants and seamen who settled in England.

scholarly journals The Onomastic Data of the Fourteenth-Century Poll Tax Returns: A Case for Further Dialectological Study of Late Medieval English

2015 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 33-61
Author(s):  
D. Harry Parkin
Keyword(s):  
Middle English ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Historical Records ◽  
The West ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
West Midlands ◽  
Tax Returns ◽  
Short Space ◽  
English Dialect ◽  
Poll Tax

Abstract An important source of localisable Middle English dialectological data has recently become widely accessible, thanks to the published transcription of the 1377, 1379 and 1381 poll tax re-turns by Carolyn C. Fenwick (1998, 2001, 2005). As the only collection of onomastic data from the late fourteenth century with national coverage, the name forms in the records can be analysed to further our understanding of Middle English dialect distribution and change. As with many historical records, the poll tax returns are not without damage and so do not cover the country in its entirety, but provided their investigation is carried out with suitable methodological caution, they are of considerable dialectological value. Using the poll tax data, the distributions of two dialect features particular to the West Midlands (specifically rounding of /a/ to /o/ before nasals and /u/ in unstressed positions) are presented and compared with the patterns given for the same features in Kristensson’s (1987) dialect survey of data from 1290-1350. By identifying apparent discrepancies in dialect distribution from these datasets, which represent periods of no more than 100 years apart, it seems that the spread of certain Middle English dialect features may have changed considerably over a short space of time. Other possible reasons for these distribution differences are also suggested, highlighting the difficulties in comparing dialect data from differ-ent sets of records. Through this paper a case for further dialectological study, using the poll tax returns, is made, to add to the literature on Middle English dialect distribution and to improve our knowledge of ME dialect phonologies at the end of the fourteenth century.

Materiality, Documentary Authority, and the Circulation of the Katherine Group

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-50
Author(s):  
Jenny C. Bledsoe
Keyword(s):  
Middle English ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Literary Culture ◽  
The West ◽  
Manuscript Culture ◽  
Ancrene Wisse ◽  
Textual Community ◽  
West Midlands ◽  
Katherine Group

Written in the decades before Ancrene Wisse, the Early Middle English hagiographies of the Katherine Group depict three virgin martyrs, Katherine, Margaret, and Juliana. Using touch and eyewitness accounts as measures of proof, the legend equates St. Margaret’s body with the textual corpus inscribed on animal hide. The manuscript’s documentary authority is verified through proximity to the holy body of the saint, and, in a similarly body-centred (and precarious) authority, the anchoress functions as the centre of an ephemeral textual community in the early thirteenth century. The Katherine Group narratives and codicological evidence indicate an anchoritic-lay literary culture operating adjacent to clerical manuscript culture, consistent with Catherine Innes-Parker’s theory about co-existing informal and formal vernacular textual cultures in the West Midlands. This “informal,” or ephemeral, textual community shaped lay literacy and manuscript use, including perceptions about the documentary authority of vernacular textual artifacts.

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.

Amateur Book Production and the Miscellany in Late Medieval East Anglia

Insular Books ◽  
2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol M. Meale
Keyword(s):  
Family Study ◽  
Geographical Area ◽  
Book Production ◽  
Bodleian Library ◽  
New Haven ◽  
Yale University ◽  
East Anglia ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
University Library

The manuscripts discussed here, Oxford, Bodleian Library, Tanner MS 407 and New Haven, Yale University Library, Beinecke 365, were produced roughly contemporaneously and within a relatively small geographical area. Tanner is the work of one man, Robert Reynes of Acle, and is noted for the eclecticism of its contents. Beinecke, meanwhile, was the work of two scribes, the first anonymous, the second Robert Melton of Stuston. The first copyist’s work is largely religious and exemplary; Melton’s contributions are non-literary, consisting of prayers and copies of accounts and deeds relating to his role of steward to the Cornwallis family. Study of content is complemented by analysis of the structure of each book while comparison of the dramatic texts lends particularity to the taxonomic distinctions which must be drawn between them.

scholarly journals York’s Guilds’ Names in the 15th Century and Their Translation into Spanish

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristina Mourón Figueroa
Keyword(s):  
Middle English ◽  
Medieval England ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Corpus Christi ◽  
15Th Century ◽  
Late Medieval England ◽  
Corpus Christi Cycle ◽  
Definition Of

En la Inglaterra de la Baja Edad Media, los gremios de la ciudad de York se encargaban de representar escenas bíblicas tomadas del ciclo de Corpus Christi. Nuestro objetivo principal será describir, definir y traducir los nombres de los gremios que aparecen en la lista de Burton (1415). Asimismo, trataremos problemas surgidos del intento de establecer una correspondencia adecuada entre los términos en inglés medio, en español y la definición del gremio. Como veremos, los términos que designan a los gremios ingleses no suelen reflejar con exactitud aquellos usados para los gremios medievales españoles o para trabajos y profesiones actuales.Palabras clave: Gremios de York, ciclo de Corpus Christi, traducción, inglés medio, comercio.ABSTRACTIn late medieval England, YorkKs guilds were responsible for the performance of short Biblical scenes from the Corpus Christi cycle. Since no translation of the whole cycle into Spanish is available, we will describe, define and translate the guildsK names in BurtonKs list (1415). We will also deal with some problems found when establishing an accurate correspondence among the terms in Middle English, in Spanish and the definition of the craft. The terms which designate the English guilds do not exactly reflect those used for the Spanish medieval gremios or for current trades and jobs in English and Spanish.Key words: YorkKs guilds, Corpus Christi cycle, translation, Middle English, trade

Educating for the Cooperative Society

2019 ◽  
pp. 355-373
Author(s):  
Suzanna Tomassi
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Soft Skills ◽  
Public Institution ◽  
The West ◽  
Cooperative Society ◽  
West Midlands ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter investigates the relationship between industry and academia from the perspective of industry. In addition to the theoretical review, it is based on feedback from industry leaders on how they see the role of their organizations in wider society. This chapter utilizes case studies to examine the relationship between specific companies, their academic partners, and the wider society. It focuses on the UK experience reflecting the location of its author. It specifically looks at the links between Coventry University, a British public institution located in the West Midlands, and its selected partners: the Unipart Group, Horiba MIRA, Interserve, and KPIT in India. It also refers to a bespoke Global Leaders Programme which is an exclusive, extra-curricular offering, designed to enhance students’ leadership and soft skills and prepare them for future employment after graduation. Wherever possible, the author aimed to obtain feedback from the industry representatives to assess their views on the impact of their companies on the wider society. In the same spirit, relevant colleagues from Coventry University were asked for their feedback to ensure that both perspectives were fairly captured. The examples given, and indeed, the philosophy behind the projects could be transferred to other countries and applied to other industries.

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