Latest volume in a series which is a monumental achievement (Review of English Studies)

Handlist to the rich collection of manuscripts contained in five major libraries across New York, giving a full account of their provenance. This volume provides detailed descriptions of Middle English prose materials found in the Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscripts Library, The Pierpont Morgan Library, The New York Public Library, The New York Academy of Medicine Library, and New York University Bobst Library (Special Collections). The manuscripts tend to be less well known than those in English libraries, with overlooked texts such as the Pseudo-Hildegard Anti-Mendicant Prophecy; The Book of Palmistry; a subject index of legal statutes; culinary and medical recipes; and English instructions to Latin prayers in Books of Hours. Other manuscripts of note include Trevisa's translation of De proprietatibus rerum by Bartholomaeus Anglicus, used as a copy-text for Wynkyn de Worde's first edition printed ca. 1495; and deluxe illustrated manuscripts of The Pilgrimage of the Soul and Ordinances of Chivalry. The introduction to the volume highlights the particular interests of the various collectors and the influences and characteristics underpinning their acquisitions. All but one of the manuscripts described from Columbia University were acquired by George A. Plimpton (1855-1936), whose firm, Ginn and Co., published spelling books. His collection records an interest in the history of education, with MS 258, a primer probably compiled for an English schoolchild, being a highlight. John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) specialized in expensive, illustrated manuscripts, aided in his purchases by Belle da Costa Greene, who became the first director of the Morgan Library as a public institution under J.P. Morgan, Jr. Curt F. Bühler became the Keeper of Printed Books at the Morgan in 1934, bequeathing to the Library the manuscripts that he had bought over the years. James Lenox and John Jacob Astor established the New York Public Library, with Lenox donating two Wycliffite Bibles and Astor a third. The New York Academy of Medicine owns two manuscripts relating to the work of the French surgeon Guy de Chauliac.

The Middle English Book analyzes 202 literary manuscripts from late medieval England (1350-1500) and argues that most readers looked to scribes in their immediate vicinity to acquire copies of literature. It examines various forms of writing practiced by scribes throughout the late medieval English countryside and shows that the production of documents underscored the wide availability of literary copying. As a result, when a reader acquired a manuscript,they were most often tapping into local networks of document production.

Handlist to manuscripts in Trinity College Dublin, covering all 79 Middle English prose manuscripts and indexing more than 539 separate items The manuscripts in Trinity College Dublin are predominantly from the library of Archbishop James Ussher (1581-1656). A well-known bibliophile of the sixteenth century, he was also primate of All Ireland and fellow and professor of Trinity College. Following some movement of the collection, it was eventually returned to Trinity College after the Restoration, at the behest of Charles II. It is a significant collection, both in national and international terms, with over 600 manuscripts, 79 of which contain Middle English prose. Among the manuscripts in the collection are several Wycliffite Bibles, and collections of sermons and tracts, some of them unique copies. The collection also contains writings by Richard Rolle, Walter Hilton and William Flete, and copies of Thomas à Kempis's Imitation of Christ, as well as the Pore Caitif and The Cloud of Unknowing, both of which are anonymous. There are several copies of the Brut chronicle, two of which (MSS 489 and 505) are illuminated, translations of Giraldus Cambrensis's Expugnacio Hibernica, and a copy of Robert Bale's Chronicle of London, 1189-1461. Also of note are the various collections of recipes - medical, culinary and alchemical. Dictionary-style items demonstrate the trilingual nature of the Medieval period, with single words being offered in English alongside Anglo-Norman and/or Latin words, or as marginal glosses. Fifteenth-century instructions for the coronation of a King or Queen, hidden among some later material, as well as other unidentified heraldic pieces, suggest that some of the manuscripts may be associated with the office of the Ulster King of Arms. The current handlist covers 79 manuscripts, and indexes more than 539 separate items, offering a significant contribution to the understanding of the cultural world of the Medieval period.