The Study of Medieval Manuscripts of England

The Study of Medieval Manuscripts of England: Festschrift in Honor of Richard Pfaff, edited by George Hardin Brown and Linda Ehrsam Voigts, consists of sixteen important studies, all dealing with manuscripts produced in medieval England.  The first group reflects the meticulous analysis of liturgical manuscripts that characterize the honorand’s career.  These treat both early and late medieval liturgical concerns and include liturgy for Gilbertine lay brothers, a lost treatise by Amalarius, the re-working of an Anglo-Saxon Gospel book; the music for the Vigil of St. Thomas Becket; and the continuity of Processions from Old Sarum to Salisbury Cathedral. Two studies examine the liturgies having to do with saints in Sarum missals and breviaries.  The second, historical, section of this volume includes three studies on Anglo-Saxon manuscripts.  Six other analyses concern the high and later Middle Ages: an illuminated crusade manuscript; codicological evidence for revising the traditional dates associated with Gilbertus Anglicus’s life and writing; evidence for Bishop William Reed’s collection and donation of books to Oxford colleges in the later fourteenth century; anomalous writings in a sermon codex; the records of the private incomes of monks at Westminster Abbey; and a catalogue and analysis of medieval manuscripts containing moral philosophy.