Universities hold many of the manuscripts and manuscript digitalisation projects currently on the internet. I’ll only introduce a few here, since there are so many, but hopefully from these sites you will be able to search for others. You can also search for university official web sites, navigate to the library section, and look for special projects or collections. Often you will find more useful information this way than you will by using Google, Yahoo, or even another university resource page.
Again, I only present a few of these sites to you in these articles, but I will try and not duplicate too many of them--if a site appears more than once, you know it must be good!
University of Southampton
The Wessex Parallel WebTexts are hosted on their site, developed by one of their faculty and partly funded by them. This is the excellent digitalization project of the Harley Lyrics.
University of Michigan
This site hosts the Middle English Compendium, which contains not only a huge section of Middle English Prose and Verse but also a very valuable Middle English Dictionary that would be of help when you begin to read manuscripts.
University of Virginia
More Middle English texts can be found here in the University of Virginia’s Middle English Collection--most of these texts are published in this American mirror on behalf of the Oxford University Text Archive; another academic connection!
Georgetown University
This university houses the widely-acclaimed Labyrinth, a search engine with many links and resources relating to medieval studies. Many of the manuscripts you see linked from this website can be found using this search engine.
University of Rochester
The Rossell Hope Robbins Library is hosted and maintained by the University of Rochester--this is where we find the Camelot Project, the Robin Hood Project, the Medieval Alexander Project, and the TEAMS Middle English Texts.
Showing posts with label Wessex Parallel WebTexts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wessex Parallel WebTexts. Show all posts
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Stories & Fiction
Stories of adventure were called “romances” in the Middle Ages--a word very nearly divorced from the definition we think of today. Along with romances, there were stories of the lives of saints (called vitae), allegories, and song lyrics--a huge variety when you see them as a whole, but unfortunately not too much of them have been put online. This is a very small selection of an enormous amount of literature.
The Auchinleck Manuscript
The National Library of Scotland has placed this entire manuscript on display online, with commentary, translation, and transcription. There is also a history of the manuscript available and an extensive bibliography, should you be interested in reading further. The website offers search capabilities, a glossary, and a lexicon. If you are new to Middle English or to manuscript studies, I recommend you start with this site.
Wessex Parallel WebTexts: Medieval Lyrics
This site hosts translations, transcriptions, and digitised images of the Harley Lyrics and several other brief pieces of Middle English literature. There is an introduction to grammar, a section on translating Middle English, and notes on technical terms. There is also an index of first lines, for your convenience. If you are interested in medieval song lyrics, this is an excellent site from which to start.
The Bodleian Library: Early Manuscripts
Manuscripts such as “Piers Plowman” (an allegory take about a farmer named Piers who has a dream full of adventures whose morals apply to his time) and Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” have been put online here in full, but with no transcription, translation, or commentary. However, if you are interested in studying these pieces, there is an enormous amount of literature about them in other places online or in your local library.
The National Library of Wales: the Mabinogi
The Mabinogion is a collection of mythological tales in Middle Welsh that have a partially Arthurian tinge to them but stand aloof from other Arthurian tales by story elements that are often unfamiliar. These manuscripts are in Middle Welsh without transcript, translation, or commentary, but there are translations online which you can use in conjunction with this project.
The National Library of Wales: A Middle English Miscellany
This manuscript is full of a variety of things, like the Auchinleck Manuscript from the National Library of Scotland, from Arthurian poetry to a treatise on grafting trees. Although accompanied by an introduction there is no transcription or translation readily available online. However, since some of the script is quite legible it might be worth it to challenge yourself by trying to read it straight from the page!
The Auchinleck Manuscript
The National Library of Scotland has placed this entire manuscript on display online, with commentary, translation, and transcription. There is also a history of the manuscript available and an extensive bibliography, should you be interested in reading further. The website offers search capabilities, a glossary, and a lexicon. If you are new to Middle English or to manuscript studies, I recommend you start with this site.
Wessex Parallel WebTexts: Medieval Lyrics
This site hosts translations, transcriptions, and digitised images of the Harley Lyrics and several other brief pieces of Middle English literature. There is an introduction to grammar, a section on translating Middle English, and notes on technical terms. There is also an index of first lines, for your convenience. If you are interested in medieval song lyrics, this is an excellent site from which to start.
The Bodleian Library: Early Manuscripts
Manuscripts such as “Piers Plowman” (an allegory take about a farmer named Piers who has a dream full of adventures whose morals apply to his time) and Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” have been put online here in full, but with no transcription, translation, or commentary. However, if you are interested in studying these pieces, there is an enormous amount of literature about them in other places online or in your local library.
The National Library of Wales: the Mabinogi
The Mabinogion is a collection of mythological tales in Middle Welsh that have a partially Arthurian tinge to them but stand aloof from other Arthurian tales by story elements that are often unfamiliar. These manuscripts are in Middle Welsh without transcript, translation, or commentary, but there are translations online which you can use in conjunction with this project.
The National Library of Wales: A Middle English Miscellany
This manuscript is full of a variety of things, like the Auchinleck Manuscript from the National Library of Scotland, from Arthurian poetry to a treatise on grafting trees. Although accompanied by an introduction there is no transcription or translation readily available online. However, since some of the script is quite legible it might be worth it to challenge yourself by trying to read it straight from the page!
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