A quick update, on the model of last year’s, to note what’s been up recently and where and when I’ll be speaking in the coming months.
First off, the Wycliffite Bible project held a successful workshop last week, reporting on some of our findings so far and gathering feedback on our prototype digital edition.
In the first session, Anne Hudson explored some of the issues surrounding the traditional distinction between Early and Late Wycliffite translations, Elizabeth Solopova unpicked some of the translators’ translation choices and put those into the context of Bible translations from the Gothic Bible to the King James, and Cosima Gillhammer introduced her work editing the Wycliffite Old Testament Lectionary—this text has received little concentrated attention, and Cosima has turned up a clutch of previously unrecognised copies.
In the second session Elizabeth laid out the editorial history of the Wycliffite Bible, I explained our textual-critical approach and policy on emendation and demonstrated our digital edition, and Ted Koterwas (the lead technical researcher) showed us the design process for the digital side of the project. Ted pointed out that most of the planning and design for the digital edition has been done on paper, which was amusing but also validating: I think one of the project’s strengths is its aim to bring out the complementary strengths of traditional paper-work and of new electronic editing, rather than setting either cluster of practices against the other.
Pleasingly we had a full range of participants, from undergraduates, through graduate students and early career researchers, to senior scholars. We felt that we received some very helpful feedback and suggestions, and we would like to thank everyone who came.
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Looking to the future, I’m going to have a hand in various conference sessions in the next few months. I’m going to Kalamazoo for the second time: I’ll be speaking at 1.30 PM on the Friday, in Session 258 in Schneider 2345, with the title ‘Manuscript Canonicity’. 258 is one of two sessions with the umbrella title ‘Shake up the Canon’, and I’ll be talking about how, in Middle English studies at least, individual manuscripts have begun to develop a kind of canonicity distinct from the status of the texts they transmit. You could see this as a sequel to my 2016 post here, ‘What are we going to do about the “dull” books?’, if you want to build a case for the long-term value of blogging. The previous time I went to Kalamazoo, in 2013, was my first time giving a proper paper at a real conference, so I’m looking forward to returning to the deep end where I started!
In a few weeks, over 23–25 May, Oxford will be hosting ‘Wycliffism and Hussitism: Contexts, Methods, Perspectives’, a comparative conference examining two of the grand currents of controversy in later medieval Europe together. It’s an event which is transnational in both topic and personnel. I’m keen to plug this: it’s a chance to meet and exchange ideas with scholars based in many places, and particularly with scholars from the Czech Republic; and it’s a chance to hear the latest thinking on some important medieval meetings and exchanges of ideas. Anne, Cosima and I will all be speaking about aspects of editing on the editorial roundtable on the last day. You can find the programme and registration links here. Do consider coming if you’re interested and able to get to Oxford for it, and postgraduates should note that some graduate bursaries are available—contact Kantik Ghosh (kantik.ghosh@trinity.ox.ac.uk) and Pavel Soukup (soukup@flu.cas.cz) by 30 April to apply for these.
Having organised a session at the Leeds International Medieval Congress last year, we thought we’d do the same for 2018. This time round it’s a consideration of ‘Editing Texts from Later Medieval England’ (Session 1509, 9–10.30 AM on Thursday 9 July), and I feel confident enough about our session description that I might as well just put it here! We’ll be showcasing new research arising from three editions: of parts of the Wycliffite Bible (that’s my bit), of the Wycliffite Old Testament Lectionary (Cosima’s paper), and of academic treatises on biblical translation (Elizabeth’s paper). These projects involve texts surviving in single and multiple witnesses, straddle Latin and Middle English, and entail print and digital publications: together, they constitute a kind of textual-critical laboratory. Speakers will report findings from their editorial work, but also consider methodological implications for the practice of textual criticism in medieval studies more generally. So please come along if you’re going to the IMC and want to hear and respond to some reflections on textual criticism today—I think it’s a topic which perhaps isn’t explicitly discussed as often as it could be!
And, speaking of rarely-discussed scholarly practices, I’m speaking about transcription, specifically, at the New Chaucer Society Congress in Toronto (Session 8E, 2–3.30 PM, Friday 13 July). The whole session’s dedicated to transcription, and my paper title’s ‘Whittling the Wycliffite Bible: Transcription’s Sharp Ends’. I’ll be considering transcription as a first stage in the whittling-away of manuscript information in order to present one particularly prioritised aspect of a book, some of its text. This will be a fun chance to step back and interrogate a crucial activity, and I’m very much looking forward to hearing what the other speakers have to say. And, again, if you’re going to NCS yourself and the subject interests you, please do come!
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