Harley manuscript geographies: Literary history and the medieval miscellany

by Daniel Birkholz

Overview

This study brings new methodologies of literary geography to bear upon the unique contents of a codex known as British Library MS Harley 2253. The Harley manuscript was produced upon England’s Welsh March, by a scribe whose generation died in the Black Death. It contains a diverse set of writings: love-lyrics and devotional literature, political songs and fabliaux, saints’ lives, courtesy texts, bible stories and travelogues. These works alternate between languages (Middle English, Anglo-Norman and Latin) but operate in conversation with one another. The introduction explores how this fragmentary miscellany keeps being sutured into 'whole'-ness by commentary upon it. Individual chapters examine different genres and social groupings and demonstrate that there are many Harley landscapes still waiting to be discovered. It will be of great value to those studying literary history, medieval studies, cultural geography, gender studies, Jewish studies and book history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781526140401
Publisher:	Manchester University Press
Publication date:	06/30/2020
Series:	Manchester Medieval Literature and Culture
Pages:	344
Product dimensions:	5.43(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.81(d)

About the Author

Daniel Birkholz is Associate Professor of English at the University of Texas at Austin

Table of Contents

Introduction: Harley manuscript geographies
1 Harley lyrics and Hereford clerics: the implications of mobility
2 Captives among us: Harley 2253 and the Jews of medieval Hereford
3 Histoire imparfaite: the counterfactual lessons of Gilote et Johane
4 Dying with Harley 2253: last lyric things
Epilogue: ye goon to…Hereford? Regional devotion and England’s other St Thomas
Appendix: Harley Manuscript contents
Index

Editorial Reviews

'...is unquestionably timely and often stimulating… At its best, Harley Manuscript Geographies challenges us to investigate the experiences, contributions and desires of multilingual readers who brought to this manuscript and others their imaginations and expectations, both social and literary.'
The Review of English Studies

'... this book will hold much appeal for Middle English scholars with a thirst for theoretically challenging approaches.'
Speculum

'Harley Manuscript Geographies is a virtuoso display of writing, as well as of critical acumen and probing, nuanced readings of texts that have not generally been subjected to such critical subtleties before.'
Studies in the Age of Chaucer

'There are some welcome moves in this book, including the review of the Jewish presence and absence, the enthusiasm for the Harley lyrics, and the reflections on plague that are both timely and untimely. Generous quotation from the texts and helpful translations will valuably support student readers.'
The Journal of British Studies

From the Publisher