Medieval Texts in Context. Ed. Denis Renevey and Graham D. Caie (Context and Genre in English Literature). London and New York: Routledge, 2008. Pp. xii + 257. Cloth £70.00.

• Oliver Pickering

Medieval Texts in Context contains a substantial number of fine and interesting essays, and on this basis can be recommended, but as a coherent collection it cannot be said to be a complete success. The problem is the continuing allure of manuscript studies, which has led the volume’s editors to present it as something it is not. According to the half-title blurb, ‘This collection of essays by leading experts in manuscript studies sheds new light on ways to approach medieval texts in their manuscript context.’ In fact it is a rather disparate assemblage of material on manuscripts, texts, scribes, audience, book ownership, and language, almost wholly relating to Middle English. Many of the contributions explicitly derive from conference papers dating back as far as 2001, while one is presented as a revision of work already published. There is a clear impression that the book the editors eventually managed to put together was not the one originally intended. To be fair, remarks in their introduction acknowledge, sporadically, that what really links the essays is the broader field of ‘medieval textual culture’, but they begin by asserting that ‘it is the manuscript which forms the core material under investigation in this volume’, and their summaries of certain of the essays distort their content in an apparent effort to make them fit this declared approach.

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