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M.A. (English) / The treatise on horses that forms the basis of this study is a composite text found in a 15th century manuscript previously owned by HRH Duke of Gloucester (MS G). Although sections of this text have been partially edited from other witnesses, it has hitherto been unedited from this witness. This study offers a critical edition of this treatise, including a semi-diplomatic transcription of the text, the edited text together with a textual apparatus, textual commentary and a glossary. The purpose of this study is to provide a transparent reflection of the process of editing this text. The introduction includes an overview of the relevant components and history of the text, other witnesses, previous studies and relevant theory and text-editing practices. The semi-diplomatic transcription is provided to offer the reader a point of reference, which may be used to check against the conservative critical edition and the textual apparatus. The textual apparatus provides information on textual issues and changes within the text, as well as observations concerning the features of the manuscript as deducible from the microfilm copy. The textual commentary elaborates on unfamiliar or problematic phrases and terms, and reflects on how these terms were interpreted. The glossary is selective, and includes technical or uncommon terms, along with words and phrases with unusual spellings or forms. Although this study is by no means exhaustive, the aim of this dissertation is to deal with the text as it appears in MS G, in the manner and for the purposes stated above. Since this manuscript is now in an unknown, private collection, this study will also allow for further work to be done regarding this text.

The Confessio Amantis, a poem completed in 1393, opens with its author's pledge to: wryte of newe som matiere essampled of these olde wyse [write anew some matter modeled on these old wise books]. Expressing a commonplace among writers of vernacular literature in late medieval England, John Gower describes authorial activity as the process of translating and assimilating pre-existing narratives. This dissertation argues that such conceptualizations of authorship were embraced by illuminators of vernacular literature in their burgeoning notion of invention before the ascendance of print: as translation and compilation provided a model of creativity founded on the alteration of models, illuminators located an ideal congenial to both the restrictions and freedoms of their own profession. The centerpiece of the study is Pierpont Morgan MS M. 126, a manuscript of the Confessio Amantis produced c.1472 and made for Edward IV and his Queen Consort, Elizabeth Woodville. Although it has been acclaimed as one of the most impressive extant manuscripts of Middle English literature, it has never been the subject of a major study. The aim of the dissertation is to recognize and restore to the illustrator the power of his position between the conception of a text and the consumption of a book. Part One focuses on the illustrator's interactions with the textual voices of the Confessio Amantis, demonstrating how the images in nineteen manuscripts of the poem, including the Morgan Confessio, address the identity of the author of the poem (Chapter One); and how miniatures in the Morgan Confessio reinterpret its Ovidian narratives (Chapter Two). Part Two shifts attention to the illustrator's confrontation with his patrons. Although their impact on the production of this manuscript appears to have been minimal, I observe how, as patrons they furnished a visual context for the Morgan Confessio from within their own library of illustrated historical manuscripts (Chapter Three) and books on science (Chapter Four). Produced just before Caxton printed his first book in Westminster in 1476 and standing at the threshold of standardization, this manuscript offers a complex glimpse into the variance that epitomized creative activity in illustrated vernacular manuscripts.