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.

  • Editorial Board
    • 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
  • 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.

All Books in This Series

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

    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.

    ISBN: 978-1-50151-761-7 (clothbound), 978-1-50151-242-1 (PDF), 978-1-50151-225-4 (EPUB), © 2023

    Buy Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians at De Gruyter

  • The Gaelic Background of Old English Poetry Before Bede

     

    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.

    ISBN: 978-1-50152-028-0 (clothbound), 978-1-50151-387-9 (PDF), 978-1-50151-393-0 (EPUB), © 2022

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

     

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

    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.

    ISBN: 978-1-50151-832-4 (clothbound), 978-1-50151-368-8 (PDF), 978-1-50151-355-8 (EPUB) © 2020

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

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

    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.

    ISBN: 978-1-58044-782-2 (clothbound), 978-3-11066-306-0 (PDF), 978-3-11066-290-2 (EPUB) © 2020

    Buy The Wisdom of Exeter at De Gruyter

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

    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.

    ISBN: 978-1-58044-361-6 (clothbound), 978-3-11066-195-8 (PDF), 978-3-11066-049-4 (EPUB) © 2020

    Buy Late Anglo-Saxon Prayer in Practice at De Gruyter

  • Darkness, Depression, and Descent in Anglo-Saxon England

    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.

    ISBN 978-1-58044-367-8 (clothbound), 978-3-11-066197-2 (PDF) © 2019

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

  • The Third Gender and Ælfric's Lives of Saints

    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.

    ISBN 978-1-58044-309-8 (clothbound), 978-1-58044-310-4 (PDF) © 2018

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

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

    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.

    ISBN 978-1-58044-121-6 (clothbound), 978-1-58044-122-3 (paperback) © 2010

    Buy Eye and Mind at ISD

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

    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.

    ISBN 978-1-58044-137-7 (clothbound), 978-1-58044-138-4 (paperback–out of print) © 2008

    Buy Anglo-Saxon Books and Their Readers at ISD

  • Aedificia Nova: Studies in Honor of Rosemary Cramp

    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.

    ISBN 978-1-58044-110-0 (clothbound) © 2008

    Buy Aedificia Nova at ISD

  • The Old English Hexateuch: Aspects and Approaches

    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.

    ISBN 1-58044-024-X (clothbound), 1-58044-050-9 (paperback) © 2000

    Buy The Old English Hexateuch at ISD

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

    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.

    ISBN 1-58044-013-4 (clothbound) © 2000, 1-58044-014-2 (paperback)© 2000

    Buy The Recovery of Old English at ISD