`The Index of Middle English Prose when completed will be a
monumental achievement' REVIEW OF ENGLISH STUDIES Two very
different collections are surveyed in this volume. The manuscripts
of Pembroke College, Cambridge are typical of a medieval
foundation. Its core of books is a working library of that period,
representing the interests andneeds of its Fellows, very often
given or bequeathed by them to the College. The collection was
substantially enlarged in 1599 through the gift by William Smart of
Ipswich of a large number of manuscripts which until the
Reformation had belonged to the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds. By
contrast the emphasis of the Fitzwilliam Museum collection is to a
great extent art historical. At its heart are the manuscripts
bequeathed by Lord Fitzwilliam in 1816. These were supplemented
throughout the 19th century by a series of gifts and bequests,
culminating in 1904 in the largest bequest to date, from Frank
McClean, of some 203 manuscripts. In spite of the different
character of the two collections, both contain a range of Middle
English prose items, among them Chaucer's Boece, a complete
Wycliffite sermon cycle and several Paston letters [all from
Pembroke], the Anlaby Cartulary, the "Canutus" pestilence tract,
the Brut, Lydgate's Serpent of Division and Nicholas Love's Mirror
of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ (from the Fitzwilliam). KARI
ANNE RAND is Professor of Older English Literature at the
University of Oslo.
General
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