Preface

The Illinois Medieval Association held its twentieth annual meeting, "Texts and Commentaries," on February 21-22, 2003, at DePaul University in Chicago. The meeting was chaired by William Fahrenbach. Thirty-nine papers were presented by scholars from universities across the United States, as well as England and Canada. Alastair Minnis of The Ohio State University delivered the plenary address, "Absent Glosses: A Crisis of Vernacular Commentary in Late-Medieval England?" The essays presented here in this volume of Essays in Medieval Studies were selected from those that were read at the conference, and in most cases they have been revised and expanded for publication.

The Executive Committee of the IMA met on February 22, 2003. The officers for 2003-2004 are William Fahrenbach, DePaul University, President; Barbara Newman, Northwestern University, Vice-President; and Allen Frantzen, Loyola University Chicago, Executive Secretary. Counselors for 2003-2004 are Anne Clarke Bartlett, DePaul University; Raymond Clemens, Illinois State University; Anita Riedinger, Southern Illinois University; and David Wagner, Northern Illinois University.

Institutional members of the IMA are DePaul University, Dominican University, Loyola University Chicago, the Medieval Institute of Western Michigan University, Northwestern University, Purdue University, Southern Illinois University, and the University of Chicago. For information on membership, please visit the IMA's website at www.luc.edu/publications/medieval, where volumes 1-19 of Essays in Medieval Studies are available. Volumes 18 and after are published by the West Virginia University Press and are available at Project MUSE at http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/essays_in_medieval_studies/.

The twenty-first meeting of the IMA will take place on February 27-28, 2004, at Northwestern University on "The Central Ages—Periods and Boundaries."