Laurel Braswell

Index of manuscripts in Middle English prose contained in the Douce Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford The large and diverse Douce Collection contains fifty four manuscripts containing Middle English prose, ranging from the collections of medical and other recipes, to a translation of Vegetius De re military, a copy of the Master of Game, several copies of the Wycliffite translation of the Bible, a romance Ponthus, a manuscript of devotional treatises of Carthusian provenance.

The Index of Middle English Prose is an international collaborative project which will ultimately locate, identify and record all extant Middle English prose texts composed between c.1200 and c.1500, in both manuscript andprinted form in medieval and post-medieval versions. The first step towards this goal has been this series of Handlists, each recording the holdings of a major library or group of libraries. Compiled by scholars, Handlists include detailed descriptions ofeach prose item with identifications, categorisations and full bibliographical data. Every Handlist will also contain a series of indexes including listings of opening and closing lines, authors, titles, subject matter and rubrics. For students of the middle ages Handlists provide essential bibliographical tools and shed light on a wide range of subjects.