The Manuscripts of Early Norman England (C. 1066-1130)

This volume provides for the first time a comprehensive guide to the books, texts, and literary culture of England in the generations after the Norman Conquest. It includes succinct descriptions of all the surviving manuscripts, complemented by an alphabetical listing of the texts there represented; while a separate inventory details the texts known from book-lists. A substantial introduction discusses the growth of English book collections as a whole during this period, and surveys the intellectual interests attested by the texts that were collected. Twenty-four plates illustrate palaeographical developments. This is a vital source for the study of early medieval cultural history.