Pursuing History Middle English Manuscripts and Their Texts

This volume argues through a series of selected local studies, for the importance of "textual criticism" as a fundamental act of historical interpretation and recovery, pointing out the need for attention to the physical bearers of our knowledge of the English Middle Ages, the books themselves, and the ignored and alienating features of manuscript culture. The book begins with three essays that seek to problematize medieval book production, to show the procedure as more a fluid and emergent than a foreplanned process. The following two essays provide theoretical statements about the textual uses of manuscripts.