Recent Books
- Recent Books
Comprises: Daniel W. Mosser, 'Chaucer's Scribe, Adam and the Hengwrt Project' (on Adam Pinkhurst and National Library of Wales MS Peniarth 392D, perhaps written in Chaucer's lifetime); Jacob Thaisen, 'The Trinity Gower D Scribe's Two Canterbury Tales Manuscripts Revisited' (focusing on Corpus Christi College, Oxford, MS 198); Takako Kato, 'Corrected Mistakes in MS Gg.4.27' (a detailed study of textual variants); Sherry L. Reames, 'Late Medieval Efforts at Standardization and Reform in the Sarum Lessons for Saints' Days' (on the considerable variety between copies of hagiographical liturgical texts, usually assumed to be standard throughout the province of Canterbury); Amelia Grounds, 'Evolution of a Manuscript: The Pavement Hours' (on York Minster Library, MS XVI.K.6, also known as the Pulleyn Hours, and its sewn-in images); Alexandra Barratt, 'Singing from the Same Hymn-Sheet: Two Bridgettine Manuscripts' (on British Library, Harley MS 494 and Lambeth Palace MS 3600 (olim Bristol Baptist College MS Z.e.37), and related manuscripts from Syon Abbey); Julian Luxford, 'Secundum Originale Examinatum: The Refashioning of a Benedictine Historical Manuscript' (on the so-called 'Founders' Book of Tewkesbury Abbey', British Library Add. MS 36985); Linne R. Mooney, 'Locating Scribal Activity in Late Medieval London' (a study of late-medieval London scribes of various types, including notaries public, textwriters, freelancers, etc.); Michael G. Sargent, 'What do the Numbers Mean? A Textual Critic's Observations on Some Patterns of Middle English Manuscript Transmission' (relating the patterns of survival of manuscripts of several major texts to what can be deduced about their patterns of production and dissemination); John J. Thompson, 'The Middle English Prose Brut and the Possibilities of Cultural Mapping' (on the potential to use manuscripts of a text of British history as an index of various and varying attitudes to cultural identity); Margaret Connolly, 'Mapping Manuscripts and Readers of Contemplations of the Dread and Love of God' (a study of surviving manuscripts as an indicator of the origins and channels of distribution of a text); Ralph Hanna, 'The Yorkshire Circulation of Speculum Vitae' (shows that the copies with the most accurate texts come from a very limited geographical area, and that textual inaccuracy increases with distance —perhaps in part due to misunderstandings of Yorkshire dialect by non-local copyists —suggesting institutionally controlled dissemination); and George R. Keiser, 'Vernacular Herbals: A Growth Industry in Late Medieval England' (on British Library Sloane MS 5, translated into English by John Lelamour, a Hereford schoolmaster, in 1373, and related texts).
London
Peter Kidd
A fulsomely illustrated account of the oldest publishing house in the Netherlands. The company was established by Jordaan Luchtmans in 1683, and its archives up to 1848, when Evert Jan Brill took over its management, have been available to scholars [End Page 435] for some years. This publication commemorates the depositing of the complete company archive up to 1991 in the University of Amsterdam Library, and the text and illustrations both give a good sense of the wealth of material in the archive, which it is to be hoped will lead to a full history as well as more specialized studies in future years.
Tasmania is uncharted territory for the average bibliographer, and the first association that is likely to spring to his or her mind will be with its professor of medieval history, Rodney Thomson, whose annual trips to England in recent decades have furnished us with new catalogues...
