Prestige, Authority and Power in Late Medieval Manuscripts and Texts (York Manuscripts Conference) (Volume 4)

Prestige, authority and power: what is the significance of these three terms for the study of late-medieval manuscripts and texts? This collection of essays, by leading scholars from Britain and North America, answers this question in various ways: by discussing manuscripts as prestigious de luxe objects; by showing how the layout of texts was used to confer different kinds of authority; and by locating manuscripts and texts more dynamically in what Foucault calls 'power's net-like organisation'. All of the essays in the volume embed the manuscripts they discuss in particular sets of personal relationships, conducted in specific social environments - in the schoolroom or the monastery, at court, in the gentry household and the city, or mediating between these. The essays address, among others, issues of gender, patronage, status, self-authorization, and gentry and urban sociability, in studies ranging from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries. Professor FELICITY RIDDY teaches in the Centre for Medieval Studies and the Department of English at the University of York. Contributors: SUZANNE REYNOLDS, KANTIK GHOSH, KATE HARRIS, KATHLEEN L. SCOTT, JOHN THOMPSON, CAROL M. MEALE, ANNE M. DUTTON, JAMES P. CARLEY, DAVID R. CARLSON Prestige, authority and what is the significance of these three terms for the study of late-medieval manuscripts and texts? This collection of essays, by leading scholars from Britain and North America, answers this question in various by discussing manuscripts as prestigious de luxe objects; by showing how the layout of texts was used to confer different kinds of authority; and by locating manuscripts and texts more dynamically in what Foucault calls `power's net-like organisation'. All of the essays in the volume embed the manuscripts they discuss in particular sets of personal relationships, conducted in specific social environments - in the schoolroom or the monastery, at court, in the gentry household and the city, or mediating between these. The essays address, among others, issues of gender, patronage, status, self-authorization, and gentry and urban sociability, in studies ranging from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries. Professor FELICITY RIDDY teaches in the Centre for Medieval Studies and the Department of English at the University of York. SUZANNE REYNOLDS, KANTIK GHOSH, KATE HARRIS, KATHLEEN L. SCOTT, JOHN THOMPSON, CAROL M. MEALE, ANNE M. DUTTON, JAMES P. CARLEY, DAVID R. CARLSON Table of Contents Inventing Glossing, Literacy and the Classical Text - Suzanne Reynolds Manuscripts of Nicholas Love's The Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ and Notions of Authority - Kantik Ghosh The Patronage and Dating of Longleat House, MS 24, a Prestige Copy of the Pupilla Oculi Illuminated by the Master of the Troilus Frontispiece Troilus Frontispiece - Kate D Harris An English Book Artist of c.1420 - Kathleen Scott A Poet's Contacts with the Great and the Further Consideration of Thomas Hoccleve's Texts and Manuscripts - John J. Thompson The Politics of Book Ownership; the Hopton Family and Bodleian Library, Digby MS 185 - Wendy Bracewell Piety, Politics and British Library, Harley MS 4012 and Anne Harling - Anne Dutton The Abbess of Malling's Gift Manuscript (1520) - Mary C. Erler 'Plutarch's' Life of a Recently Located New Year Gift to Thomas Cromwell by Henry Parker, Lord Morley - James Carley Manuscripts After Affinity, Dissent and Display in the Texts of Wyatt's Psalms - David R. Carlson A range of manuscripts and texts from various social contexts studied for what they reveal of that social background.Prestige, authority and power: what is the significance of these three terms for the study of late-medieval manuscripts and texts? This collection of essays, by leading scholars from Britain and North America, answers this question in various ways: by discussing manuscripts as prestigious de luxe objects; by showing how the layout of texts was used to confer different kinds of authority; and by locating manuscripts and texts more dynamically in whatFoucault calls `power's net-like organisation'. All of the essays in the volume embed the manuscripts they discuss in particular sets of personal relationships, conducted in specific social environments - in the schoolroom or themonastery, at court, in the gentry household and the city, or mediating between these. The essays address, among others, issues of gender, patronage, status, self-authorization, and gentry and urban sociability, in studies ranging from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries. Professor FELICITY RIDDY teaches in the Centre for Medieval Studies and the Department of English at the University of York. Contributors: SUZANNE REYNOLDS, KANTIK GHOSH, KATE HARRIS, KATHLEEN L. SCOTT, JOHN THOMPSON, CAROL M. MEALE, ANNE M. DUTTON, JAMES P. CARLEY, DAVID R. CARLSON Preliminaries......Page 1 Contents......Page 6 List of Plates......Page 7 Introduction......Page 9 Inventing Authority: Glossing, Literacy and the Classical Text......Page 15 Manuscripts of Nicholas Love's The Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ and Wycliffite Notions of `Authority'......Page 25 The Patronage and Dating of Longleat House MS 24, a Prestige Copy of the Pupilla Oculi Illuminated by the Master of the Troilus Frontispiece......Page 43 Limner-Power: A Book Artist in England c. 1420......Page 63 A Poet's Contacts with the Great and the Good: Further Consideration of Thomas Hoccleve's Texts and Manuscripts......Page 85 The Politics of Book Ownership: The Hopton Family and Bodleian Library, Digby MS 185......Page 111 Piety, Politics and Persona: MS Harley MS 4012 and Anne Harling......Page 141 The Abbess of Malling's Gift Manuscript (1520)......Page 155 `Plutarch's' Life of Agesilaus: A Recently Located New Year's Gift to Thomas Cromwell by Henry Parker, Lord Morley......Page 167 Manuscripts after Printing: Affinity, Dissent and Display in the Texts of Wyatt's Psalms......Page 179 Index of manuscripts......Page 197 Index of names and titles......Page 200