E-Books →Scribal Authorship and the Writing of History in Medieval England

Matthew Fisher, "Scribal Authorship and the Writing of History in Medieval England"
English | 2012 | ISBN: 0814211984 | PDF | pages: 242 | 4.5 mb
Based on new readings of some of the least-read texts by some of the best-known scribes of later medieval England, Scribal Authorship and the Writing of History in Medieval England reconceptualizes medieval scribes as authors, and the texts surviving in medieval manuscripts as authored. Culling evidence from history writing in later medieval England, Matthew Fisher concludes that we must reject the axiomatic division between scribe and author. Using the peculiarities of authority and intertextuality unique to medieval historiography, Fisher exposes the rich ambiguities of what it means for medieval scribes to "write" books. He thus frames the composition, transmission, and reception-indeed, the authorship-of some medieval texts as scribal phenomena.