The Multilingual Dynamics of Medieval Literature in Western Europe, c. 1200–c. 1600

While the multilingualism of the medieval world has been at the forefront of research agendas across medieval studies in recent years, there nonetheless remain many questions to answer. What, for example, were the stakes and consequences of multilingualism for literary culture? And how do these change if we think of multilingualism through cultural, social, artistic, or material lenses? Taking such concerns as their starting point, the essays in this volume address a variety of aspects of medieval literature and literary culture related to multilingualism. They deal with multilingualism in relation to manuscripts, literary contexts, and historical contexts. The chapters gathered together here address considerations that have been overlooked in previous scholarship, and ask where the future of the study of medieval multilingualism lies. Contributions to the volume are grouped thematically, rather than by date or period, in order to draw out comparative perspectives, with the aim of encouraging innovative new approaches to future research in the field.

List of Illustrations

Abbreviations

Preface

 1. Introduction
Bart Besamusca, Lisa Demets, and Jelmar Hugen

Multilingualism and Materiality

2. Looking French: A Comparative Codicology of Manuscripts in Multilingual Flanders
Jenneka Janzen

3. The Multilingual Dynamics of History in the Margins of MS Laud Misc. 636
Michael Lysander Angerer

4. Explicit and Implicit Multilingualisms: The Imago mundi and MS Estense α.Q.5.
Natalia I. Petrovskaia

5. Linguistic Diversity in Sixteenth-Century Antwerp: Exploring a Multilingual Edition of the Historia de Grisel y Mirabella
Rozanne Versendaal

Contact Zones and Cross-cultural Encounters

6. The Fourth Crusade and the Multilingualism of Flemish Literary History: Home and Away
David Murray

7. Code-switching in Bethu Brigte, the Old Irish Life of St Brigit: Preliminary Findings
Érin Nic Coinnigh

8. Together Yet Apart? Missing Multilingualism in the Middle Dutch Arthurian Tradition
Jelmar Hugen

Multilingual Institutions and Milieus

10. Who Read What in Which Language(s) in Late-Medieval Ghent? The Evidence of Book Ownership
Bart Besamusca

11. Women as Multilingual Readers in Late Medieval Flanders: Exploring the Manuscript Evidence
Lisa Demets

Manuscript Index

Index of Historical Figures and Texts