Fresh examinations of the manuscript which is one of the chief compendiums of literature in the Middle English period.Created in London c. 1340, the Auchinleck manuscript (Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland Advocates MS 19.2.1) is of crucial importance as the first book designed to convey in the English language an ambitious range ofsecular romance and chronicle. Evidently made in London by professional scribes for a secular patron, this tantalizing volume embodies a massive amount of material evidence as to London commercial book production and the demand for vernacular texts in the early fourteenth century. But its origins are mysterious: who were its makers? its users? how was it made? what end did it serve? The essays in this collection define the parameters of present-day Auchinleck studies. They scrutinize the manuscript's rich and varied contents; reopen theories and controversies regarding the book's making; trace the operations and interworkings of the scribes, compiler, and illuminators; teaseout matters of patron and audience; interpret the contested signs of linguistic and national identity; and assess Auchinleck's implied literary values beside those of Chaucer. Geography, politics, international relations and multilingualism become pressing subjects, too, alongside critical analyses of literary substance. Susanna Fein is Professor of English at Kent State University and editor of The Chaucer Review. Contributors: Venetia Bridges, Patrick Butler, Siobhain Bly Calkin, A. S. G. Edwards, Ralph Hanna, Ann Higgins, Cathy Hume, Marisa Libbon, Derek Pearsall, Helen Phillips, Emily Runde, Timothy A. Shonk, Míceál F. Vaughan.

Introduction. The Auchinleck Manuscript: New Perspectives - Susanna FeinThe Auchinleck Manuscript Forty Years On - Derek PearsallCodicology and Translation in the Early Sections of the Auchinleck Manuscript - A S G EdwardsThe Auchinleck Adam and Eve: An Exemplary Family Story - Cathy HumeA Failure to Communicate: Multilingualism in the Prologue to Of Arthour and of Merlin - Patrick ButlerScribe 3's Literary Project: Pedagogies of Reading in Auchinleck's Booklet 3 - Emily RundeAbsent Presence: Auchinleck and Kyng Alisaunder - Venetia BridgesSir Tristrem, a Few Fragments and the Northern Identity of the Auchinleck Manuscript - Ann HigginsThe Invention of King Richard - Marisa LibbonAuchinleck and Chaucer - Helen PhillipsEndings in the Auchinleck Manuscript - Siobhain Bly CalkinParaphs, Piecework and Presentation: The Production Methods of Auchinleck Revisited - Timothy A. ShonkScribal Corrections in the Auchinleck Manuscript - Miceal F VaughanAuchinleck 'Scribe 6' and Some Corollary Issues - Ralph HannaBibliography