Fresh contributions to the study of medieval manuscripts, texts, and their creators. This exciting collection of essays is centred on late medieval English manuscripts and their texts. It offers new insights into the works of canonical literary writers, including Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gower, William Langland, Walter Hilton and Nicholas Love, as well as lesser-known texts and manuscripts. It also considers medieval books, their producers, readers, and collectors. It is thus a fitting tribute to one the foremost scholars of the history of the book, Professor Toshiyuki Takamiya, whom it honours. Simon Horobin is Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Oxford; Linne Mooney is Professor of Medieval English Palaeography in the Department of English and Related Literature at the University of York. Contributors: Timothy Graham, Richard Firth Green, Carrie Griffin, Gareth Griffith, Phillipa Hardman, John Hirsh, Simon Horobin, Terry Jones, Takako Kato, Linne R. Mooney, Mary Morse, James J. Murphy, Natalia Petrovskaia, Susan Powell, Ad Putter, Michael G. Sargent, Eric Stanley, Mayumi Taguchi, Isamu Takahashi, Satoko Tokunaga, R.F. Yeager

Studies on the influence of the middle ages, and in particular the Arthurian legends, on the culture of North America. Fifteen essays trace North America's enthusiastic engagement with the middle ages from the Revolution to Disney. There are eight studies of the American reception of Arthur: in art (Abbey, Rosenthal), literature (Canadian writers,John Ciardi), scholarship (R.S. Loomis), politics (JFK), and popular culture (Arthurian youth groups, Disneyland, the Excalibur Casino). Other topics include Tom Paine, Elbertus Hubbard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, C.B. DeMille, popular treatments of Villon, the roots of the New Mexican cuento, and the rhetoric of the Gulf War. Contributors: ROGER WOOD, KYMBERLEY N. PINDER, ERICA E. HIRSHLER, ALAN LUPACK, CHARLOTTE OBERG, RAYMOND H. THOMPSON,STAN GALLOWAY, ROBIN BLAETZ, ROBERT D. PECKHAM, JEFF RIDER, KLAUS P. JANKOFSKY, MARY MORSE, PAMELA S. MORGAN, SUSAN ARONSTEIN, NANCY COINER, JONATHAN M. ELUKIN

In medieval England, women in labor wrapped birth girdles around their abdomens to protect themselves and their unborn children. These parchment or paper rolls replicated the "girdle relics" of the Virgin Mary and other saints loaned to queens and noblewomen, extending childbirth protection to women of all classes. This book examines the texts and images of nine English birth girdles produced between the reigns of Richard II and Henry VIII. Cultural artifacts of lay devotion within the birthing chamber, the birth girdles offered the solace and promise of faith to the parturient woman and her attendants amid religious dissent, political upheaval, recurring epidemics, and the onset of print.

An eye-opening and honest look at the enduring sexism within the scientific community and what women are doing to change it.