Witnesses to the disappearance of a text, palimpsest manuscripts bear the marks of their own genesis, with their original inscription rubbed out and written over on the same parchment.
This collection explores analogies of erasure and rewriting observed in editorial and literary practices underlying the production of texts from medieval England.
Raeleen Chai- Elsholz, Introduction: Palimpsests and ‘Palimpsestuous’ Reinscriptions, pp. 1-17.
Abstract: This introduction analyzes the term “palimpsest” in relation to the various types of artifacts of cultural production discussed in the volume’s essays.
Adrian Papahagi, An Anglo- Saxon Palimpsest from Fleury: Orléans, Bibliothèque Municipale MS 342 (290), pp. 21-33.
Abstract: This essay examines an Orléans manuscript (s. x/xi) against the background of exchanges between Fleury and Anglo- Saxon abbeys, and suggests it was palimpsested in Fleury.
Peter A. Stokes, Recovering Anglo-Saxon Erasures: Some Questions, Tools, and Techniques, pp. 35-60.
Abstract: This essay provides practical instruction in enhancing digital images of damaged or palimpsested manuscripts, encompassing basic principles, hands-on techniques, and the ethics of enhancement.
Jane Roberts, Some Psalter Glosses in Their Immediate Context, pp. 61-79.
Abstract: This essay looks closely at three Anglo-Saxon glossed psalters and how the palimpsestic layers of gloss and text, language and layout, speak to the meditative reader.
Paul E. Szarmach, The Palimpsest and Old English Homiletic Composition, pp. 81-94.
Abstract: This essay proposes that the palimpsest offers a way to understand the composition techniques of Old English homilists, notably Ælfric, Wulfstan, and the anonymous tradition.
Sharon M. Rowley, 'Ic Beda’ . . . ‘Cwæð Beda’: Reinscribing Bede in the Old English Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, pp. 95-113.
Abstract: This essay examines literal and metaphorical palimpsests in the OEHE, emphasizing the strategies through which Bede’s translators represent Bede’s voice in direct and indirect discourse.
Florence Bourgne, Vernacular Engravings in Late Medieval England, pp. 115-136.
Abstract: Anxious late-medieval vernacular authors saturated their texts with references to engraved writings. These often refer to inscriptions on wax tablets, a fragile albeit professional medium.
Leo Carruthers, Rewriting Genres: Beowulf as Epic Romance, pp. 139-155.
Abstract: Investigation of its historical matter in parallel with its generic classifications shows Beowulf to be a literary palimpsest anticipating the historical novel.
Gila Aloni, Palimpsestic Philomela: Reinscription in Chaucer’s “Legend of Philomela", pp. 157-173.
Abstract: In rewriting Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Book VI, Chaucer partially erases his source to make room for his own “Legend of Philomela.”
Claire Vial, The Middle English Breton Lays and the Mists of Origin, pp. 175-191.
Abstract: Awareness of generic ancestry offers evidence of the palimpsestuous nature of the “true” Middle English Breton lays.
Colette Stévanovitch, Enquiries into the Textual History of the Seventeenth- Century Sir Lambewell (London, British Library, Additional 27897), pp. 193-204.
Abstract: The mid- seventeenth-century romance Sir Lambewell incorporates accretions from various periods, which reflect the tastes of various audiences and coexist as in a palimpsest.
Jean- Marc Elsholz, Elucidations: Bringing to Light the Aesthetic Underwriting of the Matière de Bretagne in John Boorman’s Excalibur, pp. 205-226.
Abstract: Boorman’s film Excalibur enacts medieval theories of light that form the underwriting of successive layers of the Arthurian romance tradition.
Review This Product
Mon, 2 May 2011 | Review
by: André R.
"These eleven original essays scrutinize the subject of the palimpsest, both literal and metaphorical, from a series of different angles and generate a rich and thought-provoking array of examples of different types of recycling and layering in verbal and visual texts from the Old English period to the present, from early medieval manuscripts to contemporary film. The range and depth of treatments of the palimpsest as both a concrete and a conceptual phenomenon are exemplary."
--Laura Kendrick, Professor of Medieval Studies, Université de Versailles
"Altogether a fine tribute to, and celebration of, the life and work of a great scholar, André Crépin, on his eightieth birthday. 'Palimpsest' is given a broad definition in this collection of essays to cover both the material and the literary, that is, any alteration, abridgement, or translation of earlier texts. The contributions range from a discussion of palimpsests in manuscripts such as Beowulf, on wax tablets and vernacular engravings in the late medieval period, and how new digital technology can enhance our knowledge of palimpsests, to a broader interpretation of the word to cover the retelling, adaptation, or translation of earlier works in particular in the romance tradition, culminating in modern film adaptation of medieval literary works."
--Graham Caie, Vice Principal, University of Glasgow
"Covering palimpsests both literal and literary, and ranging in subject matter from Beowulf to John Boorman's Excalibur via Bede, the matière de Bretagne, Chaucer, and more, the contributions to this volume honor André Crépin with a sparkling series of investigations into the materiality, the composition, and the transmission of Old and Middle English texts."
--Timothy Graham, Associate Professor, University of New Mexico
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