Publications of the Richard Rawlinson Center

Publications of the Richard Rawlinson Center is a scholarly series of monographs and essay collections that present research on the history, literature, and material culture of early medieval England in its wider chronological and geographical context, including its links with the European continent and the Celtic world. The series places particular emphasis on the study of manuscripts.
Bird-Shaped Brooch, 500–550 C.E., New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917, 17.191.74. Public domain.

Submissions

Proposals or completed manuscripts to be considered for publication by Medieval Institute Publications should be sent to Erin Sweany (for literary studies) or Emily Winkler (for historical studies), acquisitions editors for the series, or the series editor, Lindy Brady, Edge Hill University. All proposals and submissions are evaluated by members of the International Advisory Board of the Center and undergo independent peer review.

Editorial board and special advisors

The series' editorial board and special advisors comprises:

Lindy Brady, Edge Hill University, UK, Series Editor
Thomas A. Bredehoft, Chancery Hill Books and Antiques, USA
Kees Dekker, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, the Netherlands
Nicole Guenther Discenza, University of South Florida, USA
Helen Foxhall Forbes, Ca’ Foscari, University of Venice, Italy
Susan Kim, Illinois State University, USA
Rosalind Love, Robinson College, Cambridge University, England

Publications

Cover image of Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, and Women in Tenth-Century England: a greyscale image of a sculpture of a woman in medieval clothing, wearing a crown, holding a sword in her right hand, pointed down, and a spear in her left, pointing up and forward. The title is in light yellow.

Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, and Women in Tenth-Century England

Edited by Rebecca Hardie

Æthelflæd (ca. 870–918), political leader, military strategist and administrator of law, is one of the most important ruling women in English history. Despite her multifaceted roles and family legacy, however, her reign and relationship with other women in tenth-century England have never been the subject of a book-length study. This interdisciplinary collection of essays redresses a notable hiatus in scholarship of early medieval England. Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, and Women in Tenth-Century England argues for a reassessment of women’s political, military, literary and domestic agency. It invites deeper reflection on the female kinships, networks and communities that give meaning to Æthelflæd’s life, and through this shows how medieval history can invite new engagements with the past.

Buy Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians at De Gruyter

Listen to Rebecca Hardie's interview on the BBC's History Extra podcast!

Listen to Rebecca Hardie's interview on the New Books Network!

Cover image of The Gaelic Background of Old English Poetry Before Bede: a carved stone Celtic cross, in front of a leafy background, with the title in tan on a black background.

The Gaelic Background of Old English Poetry Before Bede

By Colin A. Ireland

This ground-breaking study displays the transformations created by the growth of vernacular literatures and bilingual intellectual cultures. Gaelic missionaries and educational opportunities helped shape the Northumbrian “Golden Age,” its manuscripts, and hagiography and the writings of Aldhelm and Bede.

Buy The Gaelic Background of Old English Poetry Before Bede at De Gruyter

Watch our Coffee Break interview with Colin Ireland!

Cover image of Poetic Style and Innovation in Old English, Old Norse, and Old Saxon: manuscript image of King David playing the harp, on a black background.

Poetic Style and Innovation in Old English, Old Norse, and Old Saxon

By Megan Elizabeth Hartman

This book traces the development of hypermetric verse in Old English and compares it to the cognate traditions of Old Norse and Old Saxon. The study illustrates the inherent flexibility of the hypermetric line and shows how poets were able to manipulate this flexibility in different contexts for different practical and rhetorical purposes. This analysis shows what degree of control the poets had over the traditional alliterative line, what effects they were able to produce with various stylistic choices, and how attention to poetic style aids literary analysis.

Buy Poetic Style and Innovation in Old English, Old Norse, and Old Saxon at De Gruyter

Cover image of The Wisdom of Exeter: Anglo-Saxon Studies in Honor of Patrick W. Conner: An Anglo-Saxon manuscript, with the title in tan on a black background

The Wisdom of Exeter: Anglo-Saxon Studies in Honor of Patrick W. Conner

Edited E. J. Christie

This interdisciplinary volume collects original essays in literary criticism and literary theory, philology, codicology, metrics, and art history. Composed by prominent scholars in Anglo-Saxon studies, these essays honor the depth and breadth of Patrick W. Conner’s influence in our discipline. As a scholar, teacher, editor, administrator and innovator, Pat has contributed to Anglo-Saxon studies for four decades. It is hard to say which of his legacies is most profound.

Buy The Wisdom of Exeter at De Gruyter

Cover image of Late Anglo-Saxon Prayer in Practice: Before the Books of Hours: The title in goldenrod on a black background; an image of a monk from an Anglo-Saxon manuscript (British Library Board (Cotton MS Titus D XXVI f019v)

Late Anglo-Saxon Prayer in Practice: Before the Books of Hours

By Kate Thomas

An examination of the creation of complex devotional programs in late Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, which were the forerunners of the Special Offices. This is demonstrated through close readings of prayer collections for liturgical feasts, the canonical Hours, prayer before the Cross, private confession, and prayers for protection and healing.

Buy Late Anglo-Saxon Prayer in Practice at De Gruyter

Cover image of Darkness, Depression, and Descent in Anglo-Saxon England: the title in goldenrod on a black background, with a roundel from the Life of St. Guthlac, Harley Roll Y 6

Darkness, Depression, and Descent in Anglo-Saxon England

By Ruth Wehlau

This collection of essays examines the motifs of darkness, depression, and descent in both literal and figurative manifestations within a variety of Anglo-Saxon texts, including the Old English Consolation of Philosophy, Beowulf, Guthlac, The Junius Manuscript, The Wonders of the East, and The Battle of Maldon. It investigates the connection between the burgeoning interest in trauma studies and darkness and the representation of the mind or of emotional experience in Anglo-Saxon literature.

Buy Darkness, Depression, and Descent in Anglo-Saxon England at De Gruyter

Cover image of The Third Gender and Ælfric's Lives of Saints: on a black background, the title in goldenrod text with an image from a medieval manuscript of God creating Eve from Adam's rib

The Third Gender and Ælfric's Lives of Saints

By Rhonda L. McDaniel

"The Third Gender" considers Ælfric of Eynsham's treatment of gender as he translates Latin monastic saints' Lives for his Anglo-Saxon lay audience.

Buy The Third Gender and Ælfric's Lives of Saints at ISD

Cover of Eye and Mind: Collected Essays in Anglo-Saxon and Early Medieval Art: the title in gold on a green background.

Eye and Mind: Collected Essays in Anglo-Saxon and Early Medieval Art by Robert Deshman

Edited by Adam Cohen

Deshman wove together a dense and tightly structured nexus of Early Christian, Carolingian, Anglo-Saxon and Ottonian manuscript illuminations, ivories, textiles, mosaics and wall paintings on the one hand, and contemporary exegetical, liturgical and political writings on the other.

Buy Eye and Mind at ISD

Cover of Anglo-Saxon Books and Their Readers: The title in gold on a brown background.

Anglo-Saxon Books and Their Readers: Essays in Celebration of Helmut Gneuss's "Handlist of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts"

Edited by Thomas N. Hall and Donald Scragg

The collection opens with Gneuss's Rawlinson Center lecture, delivered just a few months prior to the publication of the "Handlist." The lecture is followed by six essays that examine the scribes, contents, circumstances of production and intended uses of selected manuscripts from the late Anglo-Saxon period and investigate the fates of Anglo-Saxon manuscripts at the hands of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century antiquaries.

Buy Anglo-Saxon Books and Their Readers at ISD

Cover image of Aedificia Nova: blue, gold, and cream glass beads on a lavendar background, with the title in a rectangular box in the middle of the cover.

Aedificia Nova: Studies in Honor of Rosemary Cramp

Edited by Catherine E. Karkov and Helen Damico

The essays offered to Professor Cramp in this volume, while varied in subject, discipline and methodological approach, center on interpretations of the material world, whether that materiality appears in literature, in stone or in the artifacts removed from an archaeological dig.

Buy Aedificia Nova at ISD

The Old English Hexateuch: Aspects and Approaches: an Anglo-Saxon manuscript on a black background, with the title above

The Old English Hexateuch: Aspects and Approaches

Edited by Rebecca Barnhouse and Benjamin C. Withers

Its over four hundred images make this manuscript (Cotton Claudius B. iv) one of the most extensively illustrated books to survive from the early Middle Ages and preserve evidence of the creativity of the Anglo-Saxon artist and his knowledge of other important early medieval picture cycles.

Buy The Old English Hexateuch at ISD

The Recovery of Old English: an Anglo-Saxon manuscript on a black background, with the title above

The Recovery of Old English: Anglo-Saxon Studies in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

Edited by Timothy Graham

The eight essays in this collection consider major aspects of the progress of Anglo-Saxon studies from their Tudor beginnings until their coming of age in the second half of the seventeenth century.

Buy The Recovery of Old English at ISD