Textual Situations Three Medieval Manuscripts and Their Readers [Hardcover]

Generations of scholars have meditated upon the literary devices and cultural meanings ofThe Song of Roland. But according to Andrew Taylor not enough attention has been given to the physical context of the manuscript itself. The original copy ofThe Song of Rolandis actually bound with a Latin translation of theTimaeus.

Textual Situationslooks at this bound volume along with two other similarly bound medieval volumes to explore the manuscripts and marginalia that have been cast into shadow by the fame of adjacent texts, some of the most read medieval works. In addition to the bound volume that containsThe Song of Roland, Taylor examines the volume that binds the well-known poem Sumer is icumen in with theLais of Marie de France, and a volume containing the legal Decretals of Gregory IX with marginal illustrations of wayfaring life decorating its borders.

Approaching the manuscript as artifact,Textual Situationssuggests that medieval texts must be examined in terms of their material support—that is, literal interpretation must take into consideration the physical manuscript itself in addition to the social conventions that surround its compilation. Taylor reconstructs the circumstances of the creation of these medieval bound volumes, the settings in which they were read, inscribed, and shared, and the social and intellectual conventions surrounding them.

This is s study that is full of ideas, learned, lucid, and incisive; and it is all the more attractive for what can be found in the margins of its arguments, for Taylor manages to bring a remarkably wide range of contexts to bear. . . . It is the breadth of interest and information that makesTextual Situationsas entertaining as it is provocative. —MLR

Taylor contributes new insights to material philology and makes a brilliant demonstration of its clÓ$