Ralph Hanna

Index of manuscripts in Middle English prose contained in the Henry E. Huntington Library The Huntington Library, with its fifty-two complete manuscripts, and excerpts in several others, can lay claim to the largest collection of Middle English materials outside the British Isles. This collection includes nearly 500 bound volumes of literary, historical, and religious materials, which contain about 2,000 separate texts. Manuscripts in Middle English (1150–1500), particularly of prose and verse, are a collecting strength.

English literary culture in the fourteenth century was vibrant and expanding. Its focus, however, was still strongly local, not national. This study examines in detail the literary production from the capital before, during, and after the time of the Black Death. In this major contribution to the field, Ralph Hanna charts the development and the generic and linguistic features particular to London writing. He uncovers the interactions between texts and authors across a range of languages and genres: not just Middle English, but Anglo-Norman and Latin; not just romance, but also law, history, and biblical commentary. Hanna emphasises the uneasy boundaries legal thought and discourse shared with historical and 'romance' thinking, and shows how the technique of romance, Latin writing associated with administrative culture, and biblical interests underwrote the great pre-Chaucerian London poem, William Langland's Piers Plowman.

Index of manuscripts in Middle English prose contained in smaller Bodleian collections A very detailed account of the jewel among the Bodleian books, the famous "Vernon" manuscript, which amounts to a virtual library of Middle English religious texts. Hanna, moreover, offers a critical essay in his relatively lengthy introduction on the development and purpose of late Middle English religious prose collections.

A Stanford University Press classic.

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.