Table Of ContentInstructional Writing in English,
1350–1650
Exploring the nature of practical or instructional works in English
transmitted from the later Middle Ages to c. 1650, this volume consid-
ers textual and material strategies for the presentation and organisation
of written knowledge and information. The volume examines textual
and material conditions of such works in manuscript, tracing their de-
velopment through and beyond the arrival of the printing press in En-
gland in the late fifteenth century. Works on surgery, courtesy, astrology,
writing for women, and codicological recipes are examined closely from
the perspective of frameworks, conventions, and structures, and more
broadly in terms of transmission and dissemination, attitudes and tradi-
tions, readers and audiences, and shifting ideas about knowledge and the
professional realm. Instructional Writing in English makes a significant
contribution to the study of so-called non-literary textual genres and
their transmission, circulation and reception, in manuscript and in early
modern printed books.
Carrie Griffin is a Lecturer in English at the University of Limerick,
Ireland.
Material Readings in Early Modern Culture
Series editor: James Daybell, Plymouth University, UK and Adam
Smyth, Balliol College, University of Oxford, UK
The series provides a forum for studies that consider the material forms
of texts as part of an investigation into the culture of early modern
England. The editors invite proposals of a multi- or interdisciplinary na-
ture, and particularly welcome proposals that combine archival research
with an attention to theoretical models that might illuminate the read-
ing, writing, and making of texts, as well as projects that take innovative
approaches to the study of material texts, both in terms of the kinds of
primary materials under investigation and in terms of methodologies.
What are the questions that have yet to be asked about writing in its
various possible embodied forms? Are there varieties of materiality that
are critically neglected? How does form mediate and negotiate content?
In what ways do the physical features of texts inform how they are read,
interpreted and situated?
Recent in this series:
Text, Food And The Early Modern Reader
Eating Words
Jason Scott-Warren and Andrew Zurcher
Reading Drama in Tudor England
Tamara Atkin
Impressive Shakespeare
Identity, Authority and the Imprint in Shakespearean Drama
Harry Newman
Instructional Writing in English, 1350–1650
Materiality and Meaning
Carrie Griffin
For more information on this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/
literature/series/ASHSER2222
Instructional Writing in
English, 1350–1650
Materiality and Meaning
Carrie Griffin
First published 2019
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an
informa business
© 2019 Taylor & Francis
The right of Carrie Griffin to be identified as author of this
work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections
77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be
trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for
identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Griffin, Carrie, 1977– author.
Title: Instructional writing in English, 1350–1650 : materiality
and meaning / Carrie Griffin.
Description: New York, NY : Routledge, 2019. |
Series: Material readings in early modern culture | Includes
bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2019001703 (print) |
LCCN 2019008094 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Didactic literature, English—History and
criticism. | English prose literature—Middle English,
1100–1500—History and criticism. | English prose literature—
Early modern, 1500–1700—History and criticism.
Classification: LCC PR408.D49 (ebook) |
LCC PR408.D49 G75 2019 (print) | DDC 828/.20809—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019001703
ISBN: 978-1-4094-5262-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-58888-9 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by codeMantra
For Graham and Matthew
Contents
List of Figures ix
Acknowledgements xi
Preface: Instruction and the Material Text xiii
Abbreviations xxxi
List of Manuscripts xxxiii
A Note on Transcription xxxvii
1 The Professional Text from Manuscript to Print:
Lanfranc of Milan and John Hall 1
2 Courtesy and the Book 33
3 Texts and Textuality: Recording the Written Word 73
4 Reading the Future: Almanacs and Astrology 110
5 Instructing and Constructing Women 144
Afterword 183
Bibliography 187
Index of Manuscripts 207
Index 209
List of Figures
2.1 London, British Library, MS Royal 17.D.15, f. 1r 34
2.2 London, Society of Antiquaries, MS 287, f. 105r 49
2.3 London, Society of Antiquaries MS 282, f. 33r 51
2.4 London, British Library, MS Harley 4011, f. 71r 54
2.5 London, British Library, MS Sloane 2027, f. 37r 57
3.1 National Library of Wales, MS Brogyntyn II.i, f. 33r 80
3.2 London, British Library, MS Harley 2252, f. 142r 87
3.3 Arnold’s Chronicle (1502) sig. Qiii 96
4.1 London, British Library, MS Sloane 965, f. 25r 120
4.2 A Perfyte Pronostycacion Perpetuall (1556) sig. Bi 126
4.3 Title page; Leonard Digges, A Prognostication
Euerlasting (1585) 130
