The theme of University Press Week 2022 is Next UP, reflecting university presses' constant spirit of learning, adaptation and evolution. On Thursday, November 17, the Association of University Presses asks "What's Next UP in Publishing?" The team behind our Middle English Texts Series (METS), published by MIP and TEAMS: the Teaching Association for Medieval Studies, has exciting news to share about developments at METS!
#4 in our University Presses Week #NextUP series!
A sneak peek behind the redesign of METS editions
The Middle English Texts Series (METS) began operations in 1990 with the goal of providing access to the full range of literate output from medieval England, with an emphasis on writings in English, to the widest possible readership—from specialists to high school students and curious autodidacts. In less than a generation, it has done even more: it has profoundly refashioned the teaching and study of the literatures of medieval England. Almost all the non-canonical texts published by METS were previously available in austerely philological editions that only a thoroughgoing scholar could love, in expensive, pioneering subscription series like the Early English Text Society and the Anglo-Norman Text Society. In contrast, METS takes as its mission the creation of affordable editions that will pass scrutiny from the most demanding expert, yet will prove comprehensible, and even enticing, to someone who has never read Middle English before. The over one hundred METS volumes, published both in print and open access online, have made available to scholars, teachers and students a diverse and representative array of more than one thousand texts that readers and listeners in England would have encountered between the twelfth and the sixteenth centuries. By greatly enlarging the variety of accessible materials, by delivering editions that are at once inviting to neophytes and authoritative for specialists and by offering these volumes in open access digital form and in affordable hard copy, METS has expanded and energized engagement with the texts and cultures of the multilingual, transnational, medieval British Isles.
Since 1990, the METS project has served as both a barometer and a bellwether for scholarly and student investment in the writings produced in medieval England: on the one hand, it has tracked both emergent and settled interests among researchers and editors, becoming the default sponsor of deeply informed, adroitly edited, user-friendly texts in digital and print format. At the same time, METS has regularly broken new ground: it has moved boldly into dramatic and performance texts; it has underwritten publication of the complete contents of individual manuscripts (thereby allowing modern readers to duplicate the experience of medieval book owners); and, most recently, it has consciously broadened the scope of the series to include as many of the languages circulating in the medieval British archipelago as possible, including all dialects of English, Older Scots, Welsh, Anglo-Irish, Anglo-Norman, Continental French and Latin.
METS is also a pioneer in the realm of open access, having first published volumes online—for free!—in the mid-1990s. While the COVID-19 pandemic has made clear how necessary accessible digital editions are for students and researchers, METS has long recognized the need for accessibility not just in our content, but also in format. We regularly average half a million pageviews per year, with users from around the world. While our online editions have served us and our hundreds of thousands of users brilliantly over the years, there is always room for improvement. Thus, over the last three years, METS staff have been working hard on a complete redesign of our editions. While much of this work involves behind-the-scenes production workflows, and our print editions will look the same, our new digital editions will provide a much more user-friendly and accessible experience for our users, whether they just want to print a PDF or are embarking on a large-scale data mining project.
While we are still in the design and building portion of this project, we wanted to give users a peek at what they can expect once our new digital editions are unveiled. One of the most radical changes is that all METS texts will ultimately be fully encoded in TEI-XML—and they will be downloadable in multiple formats, including PDF (our most requested feature!), plain text, TEI-XML and HTML. In our current digital editions, notes are at the bottom of the screen; in the new digital editions, notes and glosses will be located next to the relevant line, making navigation between main texts and notes much more user-friendly. The new editions will be fully compliant with web accessibility standards, and we are working with experts to optimize screen reader compatibility. We know that our readers love to use annotation tools, so we will ensure that the new editions are fully compatible with popular browser plug-ins. Other features we're exploring include embedded multimedia—such as audio recordings of portions of the text being read aloud—and, in a future stage, manuscript images. Many of our discussions have focused on the nuts and bolts that are often overlooked, but that make users' lives easier: improved searching, easier site navigation and the ability to easily read texts on cell phones and tablets, which we know is how many students in particular access our site. Last, but not least: our new site will have a new, updated look.
The million-dollar question is: when will the new website and editions launch? We are tentatively planning for 2023. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for more updates and announcements, including opportunities for feedback. We're looking forward to this next stage of the Middle English Text Series!
– Anna Siebach-Larsen, Ph.D.
Director, Rossell Hope Robbins Library and Koller-Collins Center for English Studies
University of Rochester
learn more...
Learn more about our series of TEAMS Classroom Texts and about the Middle English Text Series.
Visit the Middle English Texts Series Robbins Library Digital Project and access digital METS volumes for free!
Check out some of our latest METS publications:
"The Owl and the Nightingale" and the English Poems of Oxford, Jesus College, MS 29 (II)
Edited and translated by Susanna Fein
An edition of the early Middle English verse sequence contained in the thirteenth-century Oxford Jesus College MS 29 (II) with accompanying translations in Modern English and scholarly introduction and apparatus. The sequence is varied in subject, with poems of religious exhortation set beside others of secular pragmatism. Included are: "The Owl and the Nightingale," "Poema Morale," "The Proverbs of Alfred," Thomas of Hales's "Love Rune," "The Eleven Pains of Hell," the prose "Shires and Hundreds of England," the lengthy "Passion of Jesus Christ in English," and twenty-one additional lyrics, most of them uniquely preserved in this manuscript. Made in the West Midlands, the Jesus 29 manuscript is the lengthiest all-English verse collection known to exist in the period between the Exeter Book and the Harley Lyrics.
The Destruction of Jerusalem, or Titus and Vespasian
Edited by Kara L. McShane and Mark J. B. Wright
Marked by antisemitism, Christian nationalism, and violence, this Middle English poem was nonetheless intriguing to medieval and early modern readers. Here presented in the most comprehensive edition to date, the poem will be of particular interest to scholars and students of Middle English romance, the Crusades, medieval antisemitism, and literary reimaginings of historical events. Further, this new edition expands our understanding of fall of Jerusalem narratives in later medieval England, bringing attention to a long-ignored English retelling of these first-century events that captivated Christian audiences.
Of Knyghthode and Bataile
Edited by Trevor Russell Smith and Michael Livingston
Composed for King Henry VI in the middle of the Wars of the Roses, Of Knyghthode and Bataile adapts the most widely used military manual in the Middle Ages into English verse. Responding to both the evolution of warfare and the historical background of his own time, its anonymous poet produced what one critic has called “one of the most brilliant military poems of the fifteenth century.” That work is here re-edited from all four surviving manuscripts, and presented with a contextualizing introduction and copious notes and glosses.
Christine de Pizan's Advice for Princes in Middle English Translation: Stephen Scrope's The Epistle of Othea and the Anonymous Lytle Bibell of Knighthod
Edited by Misty Schieberle
One of the most popular mirrors for princes, Christine de Pizan's Epistre Othea (Letter of Othea) circulated widely in England. Speaking through Othea, the goddess of wisdom and prudence, in the guise of instructing Hector of Troy, Christine advises rulers, defends women against misogyny, and articulates complex philosophical and theological ideals. This volume brings together for the first time the two late medieval English translations, Stephen Scrope's precise translation The Epistle of Othea and the anonymous Lytle Bibell of Knyghthod, once criticized as a flawed translation. With substantial introductions and comprehensive explanatory notes that attend to literary and manuscript traditions, this volume contributes to the reassessment of how each English translator grappled with adapting a French woman's text to English social, political, and literary contexts.
The Roland and Otuel Romances and the Anglo-Norman Otinel
Edited by Elizabeth Melick, Susanna Fein and David Raybin
This edition contains four Middle English Charlemagne romances from the Otuel cycle: Roland and Vernagu, Otuel a Knight, Otuel and Roland, and Duke Roland and Sir Otuel of Spain. A translation of the romances' source, the Anglo-Norman Otinel, is also included. The romances center on conflicts between Frankish Christians and various Saracen groups. In addition to Charlemagne and Roland, each romance features a Saracen character: either the kind but loathsome giant Vernagu or Otuel, Vernagu's handsome and sharp-tongued nephew. The romances deal with issues of racial and religious difference, conversion, and faith-based violence.
