The Making of the Vernon Manuscript: the Production and Contexts of Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Eng.Poet.a.1

This volume addresses important questions in late medieval book production and the history of the medieval book through original and substantial studies of one of the most remarkable surviving examples. The Vernon Manuscript, carefully copied and lavishly decorated around 1390-1400 for pious users, is famous as the largest and arguably the most important Middle English anthology. Its sheer size and conservation concerns mean that up to now it has been little studied as a book. The essays in this volume exploit for the first time the mass of new data generated by the Vernon Manuscript Project. Specialists in art history, bibliography, codicology, historical linguistics, and palaeography have been commissioned to interrogate this material from their various disciplinary perspectives. The result is a ground-breaking interdisciplinary volume which sheds new light on an iconic medieval book and on a transitional period of innovation and experimentation in vernacular book production.