Bøger af Ralph Hanna

The three medieval texts that make up Jankyn's Book of Wikked Wyves have formed a vital part of Chaucerian research for more than half a century. Integrated here for the first time, these texts now form a cornerstone volume of the Chaucer Library series. Near the end of her prologue, Chaucer's Wife of Bath tells how her fifth husband, Jankyn, a clerk of Oxford, taunted her by reading from a collection of antifeminist tracts. The contents of Jankyn's book include three texts that enjoyed wide distribution in the later Middle Ages: Walter Map's "Dissuasio Valerii," Theophrastus's "De Nuptiis," and Jerome's "Adversus Jovinianum." The first two are reproduced in their entirety in this volume, with selections from the third. The editors examine Jankyn's book from many angles, including the extensive manuscript sources from which it may be reconstructed, background information for its literary appreciation, and Chaucer's use of the materials. The publication of this volume, the fourth in the Chaucer Library, represents a major event for medievalists.

Malachy the Irishman's 14th century text On Poison has been obscure in latter centuries, but in the later Middle Ages, his was a book widely known, including to Holcot and Langland. Following a lengthy introduction, the volume presents an annotated text and translation; it ends with three indexes, designed to open the text.

An analysis of the importance of "textual criticism" as an act of historical interpretation and recovery in medieval literature. It points out the need for attention to the physical bearers of our knowledge of the English Middle Ages, the books and the features of manuscript culture.

This book is conceived as a handbook for graduates interested in texts and their manuscript presentation, not solely in editing them. As such, it is potentially of broad interest in all fields from antiquity to early modern studies.

'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 and printed 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 of each 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.

The Penn Commentary on Piers Plowman, Volume 2, by Ralph Hanna, deliberately addresses the question of the poem's perceived "difficulty," by indicating the legitimate areas of unresolved dilemmas, while offering often original explanations of a variety of textual loci.

This mid fourteenth-century poem was one of the most popular Middle English texts in its time. This edition makes it accessible to modern scholars with full annotation, a comprehensive introduction, and detailed commentary.

Richard Rolle - the Yorkshire hermit, visionary and transmitter of religious counsel - was widely recognised in the later English Middle Ages as a major spiritual author.

English literary culture in the fourteenth century was vibrant and expanding, with a strongly local focus. Ralph Hanna charts the development and the generic and linguistic features particular to London writing and shows how romance, administrative and theological writing underwrote the great pre-Chaucerian London poem, William Langland's Piers Plowman.