Illuminating manuscripts.

Illuminating manuscripts. Beal, Peter, and Ioppolo, Grace Manuscripts and their makers in theEnglish renaissance The English Renaissance was a cultural and artistic movement in England dating from the early 16th century to the early 17th century. It is associated with the pan-European Renaissance that many cultural historians believe originated in northern Italy in the fourteenth century. . English manuscript sudies 1100-1700, Volume 11.London: British Library, 2002. 247p 45.00 [pounds sterling] hard ISBN ISBNabbr.International Standard Book NumberISBNInternational Standard Book NumberISBNn abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m0712347712 THE SERIES ENGLISH MANUSCRIPT STUDIES HAS QUIETLY ESTABLISHEDITSELF at the cutting edge of not just the technical stuff ofbibliographic or codicological study, but our whole way of thinkingabout literature and our study of the culture and cultures which produceit, often challenging our preconceptions of texts and theirtransmission. This latest set of essays continues the good work with solid andstimulating discussions and includes significant contributions by someof the leading authorities in the field. Included are topics as diverseas 'Philip Sidney's letter to Queen Elizabeth and that"False Knave Knaveof Hearts vowed he’d steal no more tarts. [Nurs. Rhyme: Baring-Gould, 152]See : Reformed, The " Alexander Dicsone' (Peter Beal); 'Anew manuscript fragment of Sidney's Old Arcadia' (HenryWoudhuysen); 'The cultural and textual importance of Folger msV.a.89' (Arthur E Marotti); 'A feather from the blackswan's wing: Hugh Holland's Owen Tudyr (1601)' (KatherineDuncan-Jones); 'John Mott and The Newe Metamorphosis' (HiltonKelliher); 'The foule sheet and ye fayr: Henslowe, Daborne, Heywoodand the Nature of foul-paper and fair-copy dramatic manuscripts'(Grace Ioppolo); 'The manuscript sources for ConstantijnHuygens' Translations of Four Poems by John Donne, 1630'(Richard Todd); 'The black poet of Ashover, LeonardWheatcroft' (Cedric C. Brown); 'Renaissance manuscriptanthologies' (Steven W. May); and 'Systemizing Sigla'(Harold Love). The volume is based largely on the 1st Annual Conference onManuscripts and Their Makers in the English Renaissance held at theUniversity of Reading on 24 June 2000. Many of the essays in the volumeare revised versions of the papers presented on that occasion. Thecentral underlying theme of the essays is that of the primacy thatmanuscript studies should hold in the study of the English Renaissancedue to the information the manuscripts themselves provide about thecirculation and reception of the ideas they contain; what Woudhuysen inhis essay calls 'the socialisation of the text'. Of particular interest to the reviewer was Arthur Marotti'sdiscussion of a little-known poetical anthology held in the FolgerShakespeare Library Folger Shakespeare Library(fōl`jər): see under Folger, Henry Clay. Here Marotti explores the textual and culturalsignificance of the work, in particular the role played by educatedwomen in the development of Elizabethan amorous am��o��rous?adj.1. Strongly attracted or disposed to love, especially sexual love.2. Indicative of love or sexual desire: an amorous glance.3. verse, and the use ofthe manuscript form as a medium of transmission and'publication' by genteel poets such as Oxford, Sidney, Dyerand Ralegh. In summary, the volume contains some important and worthycontributions to manuscript studies and to the lives and works of thepoets, dramatists and musicians who come under consideration in it. TheBritish Library should be commended for its support of what is asignificant but nonetheless a somewhat minority interest. Neil Boness, University of Sydney The University of Sydney, established in Sydney in 1850, is the oldest university in Australia. It is a member of Australia's "Group of Eight" Australian universities that are highly ranked in terms of their research performance.