The medieval English West Midlands has long been associated with
the production of vernacular texts, in Old and Middle English, and
with the making of several famous manuscripts. The aim of this
volume is to re-think assumptions about medieval literature and the
region in the light of new research in medieval book history. A
series of specially commissioned essays in 'manuscript geography'
examines the making and use of texts and books in relation to
cultural networks in the region and beyond. Included are case
studies of manuscripts of Worcester and the Worcester diocese from
the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries; investigations of
manuscript production in fourteenth-century Shropshire and its
wider regional links; and essays on textual cultures in
Warwickshire from the activities of the aristocrats and gentry of
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries to the projects of later
antiquarians. Essays in the final section of the volume reflect on
the possibilities of large-scale, corpus-based research on medieval
manuscript books. Collectively the essays identify and explore some
of the investments of traditional regionalist accounts of
vernacular literary culture and model new theoretical and
methodological approaches.
"The volume has been carefully edited and thoroughly indexed, and Wendy Scase capably presents both a summary of the contents and a useful sense of the project's place in the directions of recent scholarship. (...) this volume will serve as a useful resource for further studies in the region's manuscript networks and as an instructive model for those undertaking similar geographic studies." (G. Shuffelton, in: The Medieval Review, 08.10.08)
"Both in its experiments with geographical analysis and in its use of quantitative analysis across large manuscript corpora, this volume offers a variety of exciting and challenging new approaches to the study of vernacular manuscripts." (T. Burrows, in: Parergon, 25.2 (2008), p. 136-138)
"Taken together with the introduction, these articles present some fascinating insights and useful fresh perspectives." (H. Skoda, in: Modern Language Review, Vol. 107, Part 2, April 2012, p. 585-586)