Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007.

Diss. Ph. D.--Faculty of arts and sciences--University of Pittsburgh, 1990. / Bibliogr. f. 368-393. Verso des feuillets blanc.

Robert Thornton of East Newton, Yorkshire (c.1367-c.1465) is the most important scribe of late-medieval England: the only amateur scribe we know to be responsible for the concurrent production of multiple manuscript anthologies. This project constitutes the first extended study devoted exclusively to Robert Thornton and his books that treats them both as independent and as in conversation with each other. By uniting the concerns of codicology and cultural history, we can gain new insights into the effect of each manuscript’s textual sequences while also considering the effect of the distribution of texts among both manuscripts. Moreover, by examining Thornton’s romances in their original material and social contexts, we can read them as they would have been encountered by Thornton and his intended readers, and gain insight into the social and cultural anxieties that may have led to their organization and distribution among his two books. Chapter 1 compares Thornton’s compilations to those of analogous manuscripts, and demonstrates that Thornton took a more active role than most contemporary compilers did in rearranging and editing his texts in order to emphasize shared themes and interests within his books. Chapters 2 and 3 of this dissertation examine the nature of each of Thornton’s manuscripts in turn. Chapter 2 demonstrates that Lincoln Cathedral Library MS 91 is a book meant to be used in the maintenance of social, spiritual, and physical health, written to be a useful tool for as wide a range of people as possible. Chapter 3 demonstrates that British Library MS Additional 31042 is a history book that traces the development of Christian civilization from its beginnings in the Holy Land to its present form in Thornton’s England. This dissertation then assesses Thornton’s whole library. Chapter 4 examines the literary contexts of Thornton’s romances, demonstrating that they are divided into thematic groups that emphasise conflict between the interests of individuals and the interests of the individual and communal identities with which they associate. Chapter 5 examines the social context of Thornton’s romances, demonstrating that Thornton employs the discourse of English nationalism produced during the Council of Constance (1414-1418), and that he therefore distributed his romances in order to emphasize England’s superiority to France.

Vad denna utvärdering försökt få svar på är hur tillgängligheten för HBT-litteratur ser ut i de system som används hos privata och offentliga aktörer – internetbokhandlar och bibliotekskataloger tillgängliga via internet. Detta medförde ett antal mer praktiskta underliggande frågor om hur trädstrukturen är designad, vilket typ av språk som används och hur lätt det är att förstå, huruvida det finns särskilda kategorier för litteratur med HBT-innehåll och huruvida det finns direktlänkar mellan litteratur med HBT- innehåll. De system som testades var internetbokhandlarna Amazon (både den amerikanska versionen och det brittiska dotterbolaget), The Book Depository och Adlibris samt de klassificeringssystem som används av nationalbiblioteken i de länder där dessa bokhandlar har sitt säte (USA, Storbritannien och Sverige): Library of Congress Classification, Dewey Decimal Classification och Klassifikationssystem för svenska bibliotek. Två av bibliotekssystemen (LC och DDC) hade inte en trädstruktur som var tillgänglig för kunderna att se och navigera igenom, medan den tredje (SAB) erbjöd en struktur med både klassifikationskoden och svenska ord, även om det inte var optimalt konstruerade kategorier och förgreningar. Ingen av dem hade gott om länkar, om ens några, till annan litteratur med liknande innehåll. Internetbokhandlarna hade välutvecklade men inte för specifika trädstrukturer med lättförstådda namn och gott om länkar till annan litteratur. Två av dem (The Book Depository och Adlibris) hade inga huvudkategorier tillägnade HBT-material vilket däremot Amazon UK och Amazon US hade. Alla bibliotekssystemen skulle behöva omarbetas för att tillgängligheten för litteratur, och i synnerhet HBT-litteratur som var fokus i denna utvärdering, ska bli god. Library of Congress och British Library skulle behöva upprätta trädstrukturer för kunderna att använda sig av och alla tre behöver se till att en kategori där all HBT- litteratur samlas finns på den högsta nivån. Internetbokhandlarna å andra sidan behöver inte göra mycket för att tillgängligheten i deras system ska bli god: Adlibris och The Book Depository behöver precis som bibliotekssystemen upprätta en HBT-kategori i trädstrukturen men i övrigt är de privata aktörerna fullt godkända. De båda Amazon- filialerna var de aktörer visade sig ha den bästa tillgängligheten av alla. / What this investigation has tried to find out is how easily availabie LGBT literature is in the systems that are used by private companies and the public sector - online book shops and library catalogues available online (OPACs). This entailed a number of more practical underlying factors regarding the design of the tree structure, what kind of language is used and how easy it is to understand, whether or not there are special categories for LGBT-related literature and whether or not there are direct links between literature with LGBT content. The systems investigated were the online book shops Amazon (both the American version and the British subsidiary), The Book Depository and Adlibris along with the classification systems used by the national libraries in the countries where these book shops reside (the US, the UK and Sweden): Library of Congress Classification (LC), Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) and Klassifikationssystem för svenska bibliotek (SAB). Two of the library systems (LC and DDC) did not have a tree structure available for the customers to see and navigate through, while the third one (SAB) offered a structure with both the classification code and Swedish words explaining what the codes meant, even if the categories and subdivisions were not optimally constructed. None of them had very many links to other literature. Two of them (The Book Depository and Adlibris) did not have main categories specifically for LGBT content which both Amazon US and Amazon UK did. All the library systems could use a revision to ensure that literature, and particularly LGBT literature as that was the focal point of this investigation, is easily available. The Library of Congress and the British Library need to establish a tree structure their clients could use and all three need to make sure they have a category where LGBT literature is collected and available at the root. The online book shops on the other hand do not need to do much to improve the availability of their systems: like the library systems, Adlibris and The Book Shop need to create a category of LGBT literature in the tree structure but besides that the private companies pass with credit. The systems used by the Amazon branches proved to have the greatest availability of all the systems investigated.

This thesis takes as its starting point the use of extracts from the works of historical authors who wrote in England in the early to mid twelfth-century. It focuses upon the ways in which their works began to be incorporated into three particular texts in the later twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. Through the medium of individual case studies – De Abbatibus (Abingdon), CCCC 139 (Durham) and The London Collection three elements are explored (i) how mediaeval writers used extracts from the works of others in ways which differed from modern practices with their concerns over charges of plagiarism and unoriginality (ii) how the structural and narrative roles which the use of extracts played within the presentation of these texts (iii) how the application of approaches developed in the twentieth century, which transformed how texts are now analysed, enabled a re-evaluation and re-interpretation of their use of source material with greater sensitivity to their original purposes This analysis casts fresh light upon the how and why these texts were produced and the means by which they fulfilled their purposes and reveals that despite their disparate origins and individual perspectives these three texts share two common features: (i) they follow a common three stage pattern of development (ii) they deal with similar issues: factional insecurities and concerns about the quality of those in power over them – using an historical perspective The analysis also reveals the range of techniques which were at the disposal of the composers of these texts, dispelling any notion that they were either unsophisticated or naïve in their handling of their source materials. Together these texts demonstrate how mediaeval authors used combinations of extracts as a means of responding quickly and flexibly to address particular concerns. Such texts were not regarded as being set in stone but rather as fluid entities which could be recombined at will in order to produce new works as required.

Scholarship of the anonymous Old English prose Life of St. Mary of Egypt ranges from source studies and linguistic analyses to explorations of Anglo-Saxon female sexuality and comparisons to saints' lives translated by the monk Ælfric, but all of these studies have been based on either the text extant in BL MS Cotton Julius E. vii or on W. W. Skeat's edition of the Julius manuscript, Ælfric's Lives of Saints (1881-1900). There is, however, an as yet unedited fragmentary copy of the Old English Mary of Egypt in BL MS Cotton Otho B. x, a manuscript severely damaged by fire in 1731. Digital imaging of damaged manuscripts in concert with ultraviolet fluorescence and other special lighting techniques has been shown to be effective for restoring the legibility of previously inaccessible texts. By means of such digital facsimiles I have transcribed the text of Mary of Egypt in Otho B. x, have collated this text with Skeat's edition, and have discovered that Otho B. x contains textual evidence not found in Julius E. vii. In this thesis, I present my findings and discuss the significance of this new textual evidence for the Old English Life of St. Mary of Egypt.