Editing Piers Plowman: The Evolution of the Text: 28 (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature, Series Number 28) - Hardcover

Charlotte Brewer

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521342503 ISBN 13: 9780521342506

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1996

Synopsis

The fifty-plus extant manuscripts of Piers Plowman have always posed a puzzle to editors and readers. This 1996 book is an account of the editions of the poem which have appeared since 1550, when it was first published by the protestant reformer Robert Crowley. It examines the circumstances in which the editions were produced, the lives and intellectual motivations of the editors, and the relationship between one edition and the next. Brewer places the work of W. W. Skeat at the centre of Piers Plowman editing, showing how he towered above his predecessors and determined the path subsequently taken by editors of the poem, and presents much new biographical information about this extraordinary man. She uses a wide range of published and previously unpublished material to explain the difficulties of editing and to shed light on attempts to crack one of the major editorial conundrums in medieval studies.

About this title

Review

"The volume is outstanding for the wealth of evidence Brewer brings to the topic. I find this a penetrating and provocative book. I think Brewer forces into the center of discussion the variety of ways inwhich editors have often forgotten...the varying assumptions that underlie their efforts at retrieving an author's ipsissima verba. Brewer's volume stands...as an impressive plea for both editorial conciousness and conscientiousness." Ralph Hanna, Speculum

"What Brewer demonstrates...are the ways in which general editorial theories are implicated in historical contexts and, more particularly, in which views on the authorship of Piers Plowman and the number and character of its versions are implicated in one another." An Interdisciplinary Annual of Textual Studies

Book Description

The fifty-plus manuscripts of Piers Plowman have always posed a puzzle to scholars. This 1996 book is an account of the editions of the poem which have appeared since 1550, examining the circumstances in which the editions were produced, the lives and intellectual motivations of the editors, and the relationship between one edition and the next.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521342503
• ISBN 13: 9780521342506
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 480