Webpages tagged with «Index of Middle English Prose»

The library of Sir Robert Bruce Cotton was partly destroyed in a tragic library fire in 1731. Fortunately, a printed catalogue published in 1696 survives. What is less fortunate is that it ignores texts such as two of the most celebrated medieval English literary works.

Manuscript collections tend to be named after the people who collected them. But who were people such as Sir Robert Bruce Cotton or Archbishop Matthew Parker? What did antiquaries of the past use their manuscripts for? What were their personal reasons and motives for collecting them?