Studies in the Vernon Manuscript

by Derek Pearsall (Editor)

The Vernon manuscript is the largest and in many ways the most important vernacular manuscript of medieval England. Produced in the West Midlands in the late 14th century, at a time when English was in the process of consolidating its hold over Latin and Anglo-Norman as the dominant literary language, it contains a mass of religious writing of all kinds, from pious romances and fables to technical and quasi-mystical treatises. It was, in the intention of its makers, a guide to the soul's health and is to the modern reader an incomparable index to late medieval English spirituality and religious ideas. The publication of a facsimile of the manuscript in 1987 was a mark of its significance for all those who study the English Middle Ages.

238 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1990

About the author

Derek Pearsall (b.1931) is a prominent medievalist and Chaucerian who has written and published widely on Chaucer, Langland, Gower, manuscript studies, and medieval history and culture.

He is the Co-director, Emeritus, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York; Gurney Professor of English Literature, Emeritus, Harvard University. He earned a B.A. in 1951 and an M.A. in 1952 from the University of Birmingham .