This is a critical edition of the Old English homilies in Vercelli, Biblioteca Capitolare MS CXVII, with parallel passages from related manuscripts. The introduction deals with the manuscript, language, parallel texts and Latin sources. The text has a critical apparatus giving the readings of other manuscripts and analogues from the other homilies, and there is a commentary and glossary. This is the first complete edition of these important ninth- or tenth-century texts.

This book provides an outline history of English spelling from the Anglo-Saxon' adoption of the Roman alphabet to the present day. It shows the respective influences on modern usage of native French and Latin orthographies and attempts a definition of the manner in which spelling stabilised. A final chapter traces changing notions of correctness in spelling during the last four centuries, and also gives a summary of the principle movements for its reform in favour of a more consistent and phonetic system of notion. Students in higher education specialising in English or linguistics and also those studying other languages at an advanced level should find this a useful book. The general reader with an interest in the history of his language or the question of spelling will find it most readable -- .