Reading and Writing in Medieval England: Essays in Honor of Mary C. Erler

Essays discussing the medieval book, its owners and its readers. Reading, writing, sharing texts, and book ownership in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and how they fostered social and intellectual links and networks between individuals, particularly among women: these are subjects whichthe pioneering work of Mary C. Erler has done so much to illuminate. The essays here, in this volume in her honour, build on her scholarship, engaging with Professor Erler's characteristic use of bibliography in the service of biography by investigating how the physical object of the book can enlighten our understanding of medieval readers and writers. They analyze, for example, what "reading" means in terms of the act itself (and the accessories, such asbookmarks, that helped to set the stage for reading), whether done aloud or silently, in such different venues as an aristocratic court, bourgeois household, village community, and monastic cloister. They also consider the culture of medieval reading practices, especially those of women, across social classes, and in terms of the transition between the pre- and post-Reformation periods; the fluidity of genre boundaries; and changes in devotional reading and writing in this liminal period. A wide variety of genres are covered, including secular romance, devotional texts, schoolbooks, and the illustrated Old Testament preface to the famous Queen Mary Psalter, which recasts the story and image of ancient Israelites to suit elite readerly taste. MARTIN CHASE is Professor of English and Medieval Studies at Fordham University; MARYANNE KOWALESKI is Joseph Fitzpatrick S.J. Distinguished Professor of History and Medieval Studies at Fordham University. CONTRIBUTORS: Allison Alberts, Caroline M. Barron, Heather Blatt, Martin Chase, Joyce Coleman, Sheila Lindenbaum, Joel T. Rosenthal, Michael G. Sargent, Kathryn A. Smith.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Bibliography in the Service of Biography "Withinne a Paved Parlour": Criseyde and Domestic Reading in a City under Siege Beatrice Melreth: A London Gentlewoman and Her Books How Intellectual Were Fifteenth-Century Londoners? Grammar versus Logic in the Citizens' Encounters with Learned Men Social Memory, Literacy, and Piety in Fifteenth-Century Proofs of Age Crafting the Old Testament in the Queen Mary Psalter Affective Reading and Walter Hilton's Scale of Perfection at Syon Book Accessories, Gender, and the Staging of Reading Enska Vísan: Sir Orfeo in Iceland? Reading the Real Housewives of John Foxe's Book of Martyrs The Writings of Mary Carpenter Erler

About the Author :
Martin Chase is Professor of English and Medieval Studies at Fordham University; having graduated from Oberlin College, The University of Michigan, The University of Toronto and Weston School of Theology (Boston College) Maryanne Kowaleski is Joseph Fitzpatrick S.J. Distinguished Professor of History and Medieval Studies at Fordham University; having previously graduated from University of Michigan, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies and the University of Toronto

Review :
An important contribution tobook history, adding further reflection on the way books were read, shared, depicted, and regarded in the medieval period. Reading and Writing in the Middle Ages not only advances Mary Erler's research interests, it honors her by adding to her scholarship and expanding her fields. . . . Many of the articles are even suitable for advanced undergraduate and graduate seminars. . . . In all, the quality of Reading and Writing in the Middle Ages is a tribute not only to Mary Erler, but to the editors and scholars who produced it.