Focusing on utilitarian texts from the later Middle Ages to around 1650, this volume examines how knowledge and information were presented and organized. It delves into the textual and material strategies employed during this period, highlighting the evolution of written communication and its impact on society. The book provides insights into the ways these texts served practical purposes, reflecting the cultural and intellectual currents of the time.
Focusing on the role of materiality, this collection of twelve essays explores how the physical aspects of books, manuscripts, and librettos influence the reading experience from the late medieval period to the twentieth century. Each essay delves into the interaction between readers and the tangible forms of texts, revealing how these objects shape understanding and engagement with literature across different historical contexts.
The 'Wise Book of Philosophy and Astronomy', surviving in thirty-four manuscripts ranging in date from c. 1380 to c. 1600, was one of the most widely-copied, consistently read, and arguably influential treatises of its kind in the vernacular in the medieval and early modern periods in Britain. This pseudo-Aristotelian text, with its roots in the 'Secreta secretorum' tradition, reveals contemporary, widely held views regarding several strands of medieval thought: philosophy, astronomy/astrology, physiognomy, 'computus', and theology. The 'Wise Book' never circulated in printed form; however, its surviving manuscript witnesses are material testament to the wide variety of readers and audiences who copied, annotated, abridged, and used the information contained in it. The variety of its material formats extends the significance of the 'Wise Book' beyond its contribution to the history of ideas; as such, the manuscripts manifest considerable variation of form, materiality, and content, and bear witness to a wide and heterogeneous public for the 'Wise Book' and its theories. This is the first edition of the text, and includes an introduction, commentary, appendices, and a glossary.