A new research project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) has identified the 'movers and shakers' in the production and dissemination of English Literature and the rise of English as a national language during the Middle Ages.
The project has just launched a new freely-accessible website www.medievalscribes.com created by the Humanities Research Institute at the University of Sheffield, which illustrates each medieval or early modern manuscript of writings by five major Middle English authors: Chaucer, Langland, John Gower, John Trevisa and Thomas Hoccleve.
The website includes a description of each manuscript, including details such as dating and dialect, detailed descriptions of each scribe's handwriting, and illustrations of a typical page written by each scribe. It also features illustrations of eight letter forms typical of each scribe's writing so that further identifications of work by them can be made.
Scholars led by Professor Linne Mooney, Professor of Medieval English Palaeography in the Department of English and Related Literature and Centre for Medieval Studies at York, carried out research aimed at identifying the scribes who made the first copies of works by major authors of the 14th and early 15th centuries, including Geoffrey Chaucer and William Langland.
Professor Mooney said: “The clerks of the London Guildhall form the invisible link between medieval authors like Geoffrey Chaucer and their first audiences, the original owners of the medieval manuscripts we study today.”
The research began with Professor Mooney's discovery of the identity of Adam Pinkhurst, Scrivener of London, who wrote the first copies of works by Chaucer, including his Canterbury Tales.
Funded by a four-year grant from the AHRC, the research also involved Professor Simon Horobin, of Magdalen College, Oxford, and Dr Estelle Stubbs, of the University of York and working from a base at the University of Sheffield.
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AHRC Media contact: Jake Gilmore, Communications Manager, 01793 416021; j.gilmore@ahrc.ac.uk
Notes to editors:
Late Medieval English Scribes is an online catalogue of all scribal hands (identified or unidentified) which appear in the manuscripts of the English writings of five major Middle English authors: Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gower, John Trevisa, William Langland and Thomas Hoccleve.
The website was created as part of a major research grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council of the UK, 2007-2011, 'Identification of the Scribes Responsible for Copying Major Works of Middle English Literature.' The team was made up of Professor Linne R. Mooney, University of York (Principal Investigator), Dr Simon Horobin, University of Oxford (Co-Investigator), and Dr Estelle Stubbs, University of York (Research Associate), and Honorary Research Fellow, Humanities Research Institute (HRI), University of Sheffield. Also assisting in the preparation of this website were Professor Daniel Mosser, of Virginia Tech, who assisted while at the University of York in autumn terms of 2008 and 2009 as Leverhulme Visiting Professor, and Michael Pidd, of the Humanities Research Institute at University of Sheffield, who set up the data base and created the website. Dr Helen Killick also assisted while studying for her doctorate at the University of York, supported by an AHRC studentship attached to this grant. Further information - http://www.medievalscribes.com/
The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC): Each year the AHRC provides approximately £100 million from the Government to support research and postgraduate study in the arts and humanities, from languages and law, archaeology and English literature to design and creative and performing arts. In any one year, the AHRC makes hundreds of research awards ranging from individual fellowships to major collaborative projects as well as over 1,100 studentship awards. Awards are made after a rigorous peer review process, to ensure that only applications of the highest quality are funded. The quality and range of research supported by this investment of public funds not only provides social and cultural benefits but also contributes to the economic success of the UK.