This thesis examines the production of the Middle English poetic manuscript. It analyses the mise-en-page of manuscripts created during a crucial period for book production, immediately after 1400, when there was a sudden explosion in the production of vernacular manuscripts of literary texts, when the demand for books increased, and the commercial book trade swiftly followed. It offers a close analysis of the mise-en-page of the manuscripts of three central authors: Chaucer’s, Gower’s, and Hoccleve’s manuscripts were at the heart of this sudden flourishing and were, crucially, produced when scribal methods for creating the literary page were still unformed. Previous studies have focused on the localised readings produced by single scribes, manuscripts, or authors, offering a limited examination of broader trends. This study offers a wider comparison: where individual studies offer localised analysis, the multi-textuality of this thesis offers broader perceptions of book production and of scribal responses to the new literary texts being produced. In analysing the layout of seventy-six manuscripts, including borders, initials, paraphs, rubrics, running titles, speaker markers, glosses and notes, this thesis argues that scribes were deeply concerned with creating a manuscript page specifically to showcase texts of poetry. The introduction outlines current scholarship on mise-en-page and defines the scribe as one who offers an individual response to the text on the page within the context of the inherited, commercial, and practical practices of layout. The three analytical chapters address the placement of the features of mise-en-page in each of the seventy-six manuscripts, each chapter offering three contrasting manuscript situations. Chapter 1 analyses the manuscripts of Chaucer, who left no plan for the look of his page, causing scribes to make decisions on layout that illuminate fifteenth-century scribal responses to literature. These are then compared to the manuscripts of Gower in Chapter 2, directly or indirectly supervised by the poet, which display rigorous uniformity in their layout. This chapter argues that scribes responded in much the same way, despite the strict control over meaning. Chapter 3 focuses on Hoccleve’s autograph manuscripts which are unique in demonstrating authorial control over layout. This chapter compares the autograph to the non-autograph manuscripts to argue that scribal responses differed from authorial intentions. Each of the three chapters analyses the development of mise-en-page specifically for literary texts. Focussing on the mise-en-page, this thesis is able to compare across a range of texts, manuscripts, scribes, and authors to mount a substantial challenge to current perceptions that poetic manuscripts were laid out in order to assist readers’ understanding of the meaning of the texts they contain. Instead, it argues that though there was a concern with representing the nuances of poetic meaning, often scribal responses to poetry were bound up with presenting poetic form.

This thesis investigates how the burial chamber of the 8th Dynasty pyramid of king Qakare Ibi at Saqqara in Egypt (c. 2109-2107 B.C.) was inscribed. It uses a holistic approach to focus on the textual programme and its unusual aspects in comparison to older pyramids. In doing so, it addresses issues of textual transmission and of scribal practice in the process of inscribing the walls of subterranean chambers in pyramids. The aim is to contextualise the texts of Ibi within the Memphite tradition of Pyamid Texts and the development of mortuary literature on different media from the late third millennium BCE Old Kingdom to the Middle Kingdom in the early second millennium BCE. The first chapter presents the background to this research and information on king Ibi and his pyramid. The second chapter treats research on the arrangement of the texts on the walls of subterranean chambers of royal pyramids of kings and queens and compares the layout of the texts in the pyramid of Ibi with older pyramids. It then discusses in detail one section on the east wall of Ibi, where the order of spells diverges from other transmitted sequences. The unusual combination of spells and the practice of shortening spells is investigated further in the third chapter, where two sections of texts on the south wall are analysed. The fourth chapter explores garbled texts and discusses processes of copying and inscribing the texts onto the walls of pyramids. The fifth chapter analyses the modifications of the writing system in pyramids, especially the mutilation of hieroglyphs, and how this practice relates to the tradition of altering signs in pyramids. Finally, the sixth chapter synthesises the results of the preceding chapters in two sections. The first section summarises the process of inscribing pyramids and contextualises aspects of scribal practices within it. The second section concludes the thesis with a discussion of the features of the textual programme of Ibi and of how it relates to the broader transmission of mortuary literature.

While the study of complete sources is very valuable, and has contributed greatly to what is understood of music history, the perspective they contribute is limited because they cannot reveal information about how music and music sources were most often used. The study of functional sources, more probably created for use, allows for more insight into how music was performed and understood, and how such sources were created, used and valued. This study examines twelve fragmentary early sixteenth-century English sources from the Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music (DIAMM) database, constituting a sample of functional music sources in this period. The study of this sampling reveals information about how functional manuscripts were created, used and valued in England during this time period. Some of the fragments contain works with concordances. These concordances are compared using variant comparison, where differences in the versions of the work are considered and weighed. The comparative study of concordances provides insight into the transmission of the versions, scribal and performance culture, as well as into music culture in general. Overall, the study of this sampling of early sixteenth-century functional English sources provides a clearer understanding of the use of accidentals, scribes and scribal culture, performers, performance practice and music culture in England at this time, contributing to the understanding of music history.

While the study of complete sources is very valuable, and has contributed greatly to what is understood of music history, the perspective they contribute is limited because they cannot reveal information about how music and music sources were most often used. The study of functional sources, more probably created for use, allows for more insight into how music was performed and understood, and how such sources were created, used and valued. This study examines twelve fragmentary early sixteenth-century English sources from the Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music (DIAMM) database, constituting a sample of functional music sources in this period. The study of this sampling reveals information about how functional manuscripts were created, used and valued in England during this time period. Some of the fragments contain works with concordances. These concordances are compared using variant comparison, where differences in the versions of the work are considered and weighed. The comparative study of concordances provides insight into the transmission of the versions, scribal and performance culture, as well as into music culture in general. Overall, the study of this sampling of early sixteenth-century functional English sources provides a clearer understanding of the use of accidentals, scribes and scribal culture, performers, performance practice and music culture in England at this time, contributing to the understanding of music history.

While the study of complete sources is very valuable, and has contributed greatly to what is understood of music history, the perspective they contribute is limited because they cannot reveal information about how music and music sources were most often used. The study of functional sources, more probably created for use, allows for more insight into how music was performed and understood, and how such sources were created, used and valued. This study examines twelve fragmentary early sixteenth-century English sources from the Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music (DIAMM) database, constituting a sample of functional music sources in this period. The study of this sampling reveals information about how functional manuscripts were created, used and valued in England during this time period. Some of the fragments contain works with concordances. These concordances are compared using variant comparison, where differences in the versions of the work are considered and weighed. The comparative study of concordances provides insight into the transmission of the versions, scribal and performance culture, as well as into music culture in general. Overall, the study of this sampling of early sixteenth-century functional English sources provides a clearer understanding of the use of accidentals, scribes and scribal culture, performers, performance practice and music culture in England at this time, contributing to the understanding of music history.

While the study of complete sources is very valuable, and has contributed greatly to what is understood of music history, the perspective they contribute is limited because they cannot reveal information about how music and music sources were most often used. The study of functional sources, more probably created for use, allows for more insight into how music was performed and understood, and how such sources were created, used and valued. This study examines twelve fragmentary early sixteenth-century English sources from the Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music (DIAMM) database, constituting a sample of functional music sources in this period. The study of this sampling reveals information about how functional manuscripts were created, used and valued in England during this time period. Some of the fragments contain works with concordances. These concordances are compared using variant comparison, where differences in the versions of the work are considered and weighed. The comparative study of concordances provides insight into the transmission of the versions, scribal and performance culture, as well as into music culture in general. Overall, the study of this sampling of early sixteenth-century functional English sources provides a clearer understanding of the use of accidentals, scribes and scribal culture, performers, performance practice and music culture in England at this time, contributing to the understanding of music history.