Looking in Holy Books : Essays on Late Medieval Religious Writing in England (9782503536873)
Looking in Holy Books is what Vincent Gillespie has been doing in most of his publications over the last thirty years. The papers collected here circle around the decades either side of 1400, a period of febrile change in English religious culture. Ranging from pastoralia through to contemplative writing, the essays explore the production, transmission, and reception of religious books in later medieval England. They show how a working familiarity with the texts and manuscripts helps to build up a rich tilth of cultural loam in which larger ideas can take root and grow. Many were originally published in hard-to-access journals, and others have not been superseded by subsequent scholarship. The collection is divided into three themes. Part I, 'What to Read', considers the cultural framework surrounding medieval religious texts. Case studies including Piers Plowman and pastoral literature are used to explore ideas that were significant in the production of religious literature a...