Thursday, August 16, 2007

Medieval Manuscripts and The Geeks That Love Them

So, in preparation for the forthcoming year, I've been reading and re-reading a variety of books on medieval literature, and it has inspired me to put together a list of favorite Medievalist resources. I'm including both books and websites in this post. I'll have to do a follow up post once I've gotten a term or two at Oxford under my belt -- I'm sure the list will increase!
So, here we are:

Books:
Bernard Bischoff, Latin Palaeography: This book is extraordinarily detailed. I'm always quoting interesting facts from it (for instance, in the later Middle Ages, extremely thin parchment was made from the skin of unborn lambs). It is considered one of the best Palaeography guides in the world.

Seamus Heaney, Beowulf: Heaney's translation is beautiful. I love how he incorporates translations of Anglo-Saxon composite words, which are lovely, into his modernization of the text.

Wace, Roman de Brut(ed. & trans. Judith Weiss): Weiss includes the original text on the facing page, even if her translation isn't always what one would wish. I included a large section on the Roman de Brut in my honors thesis. I found the way Wace identifies himself as an author extremely interesting.

Peter Damian-Grint, The New Historians of the Twelfth-Century Renaissance: An interesting look at the increase of historiography in the twelfth century renaissance.

Havelok the Dane, ed. Ronald B. Herzman, Graham Drake, and Eve Salisbury: Interesting Middle English romance

The Middle English Dictionary


Early Manuscripts at Oxford University

British Library: Turning the Pages

Yes, there are more, and I'll probably edit this post later, but for now you have a selection of my favorites.

Update: My friend Marcus reminded me of another favorite that I left out:

The Medieval Sourcebook: Full text sources online -- all free!

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