Description
This article discusses the importance and complexity of manuscript miscellanies in early modern England. It highlights the renewed interest in these compilations and how they require a unique reading strategy. The collection of essays in this article aims to refine the study of miscellanies and anthologies, with some contributors questioning and redefining the terminology used to describe them. The article also includes evidence of a Catholic community in a trio of manuscripts, as well as examples of compilers interpreting and arranging texts. While verse miscellanies are the main focus, there are also discussions of print and prose works. The article offers new insights into literature, politics, and religion during this time period and aims to make important contributions to the study of the history of the book.
Perhaps more than any other kind of book, manuscript miscellanies require a complex and 'material' reading strategy. This collection of essays engages the renewed and expanding interest in early modern English miscellanies, anthologies, and other compilations. Manuscript Miscellanies in Early Modern England models and refines the study of these complicated collections. Several of its contributors question and redefine the terms we use to describe miscellanies and anthologies. Two senior scholars correct the misidentification of a scribe and, in so doing, uncover evidence of a Catholic, probably Jesuit, priest and community in a trio of manuscripts. Additional contributors show compilers interpreting, attributing, and arranging texts, as well as passively accepting others' editorial decisions. While manuscript verse miscellanies remain appropriately central to the collection, several essays also involve print and prose, ranging from letters to sermons and even political prophesies. Using extensive textual and bibliographical evidence, the collection offers stimulating new readings of literature, politics, and religion in the early modern period, and promises to make important interventions in academic studies of the history of the book. Review: '... a wide ranging collection of essays which explore the significant and sometimes subaltern manuscript culture of sixteenth- and especially seventeenth-century England.' Journal of Jesuit Studies