Palimpsests and the Literary Imagination of Medieval England

RAELEEN CHAI-ELSHOLZ An independent scholar and technical translator, Chai-Elsholz recently contributed several entries for the Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages.   TATJANA SILEC Assistant Professor at the Sorbonne, France.   LEO CARRUTHERS Professor of English at the Sorbonne, France. He is the President of the French Association for Medieval English Studies.

"Given the quality and freshness of these individual essays, it would be churlish to object that the connecting theme of the palimpsest occassionally seems less than integral to the contributions of a few of the articles. In fact, Palimpsests and the Literary Imagination of Medieval England stands as a very worthy tribute to an eminent scholar of early medieval literature." - Speculum "These eleven original essays scrutinize the subject of the palimpsest, both literal and metaphorical, from a series of different angles and generate a rich and thought-provoking array of examples of different types of recycling and layering in verbal and visual texts from the Old English period to the present, from early medieval manuscripts to contemporary film. The range and depth of treatments of the palimpsest as both a concrete and a conceptual phenomenon are exemplary." - Laura Kendrick, Professor of Medieval Studies, Universite de Versailles "Altogether a fine tribute to, and celebration of, the life and work of a great scholar, Andre Crepin, on his eightieth birthday. 'Palimpsest' is given a broad definition in this collection of essays to cover both the material and the literary, that is, any alteration, abridgement, or translation of earlier texts. The contributions range from a discussion of palimpsests in manuscripts such as Beowulf, on wax tablets and vernacular engravings in the late medieval period, and how new digital technology can enhance our knowledge of palimpsests, to a broader interpretation of the word to cover the retelling, adaptation, or translation of earlier works in particular in the romance tradition, culminating in modern film adaptation of medieval literary works." - Graham Caie, Vice Principal, University of Glasgow "Covering palimpsests both literal and literary, and ranging in subject matter from Beowulf to John Boorman's Excalibur via Bede, the matiere de Bretagne, Chaucer, and more, the contributions to this volume honor Andre Crepin with a sparkling series of investigations into the materiality, the composition, and the transmission of Old and Middle English texts." - Timothy Graham, Associate Professor, University of New Mexico

• Foreword: Homage to André Crépin; L.Carruthers Introduction: Palimpsests and 'Palimpsestuous' Reinscriptions; R.Chai-Elsholz PART I: PERMANENCE AND IMPERMANENCE OF WRITING ON THE PAGE  An Anglo-Saxon Palimpsest from Fleury: Orléans, Bibliothèque Municipale MS 342 (290); A.Papahagi Recovering Anglo-Saxon Erasures: Some Questions, Tools and Techniques; P.Stokes Some Psalter Glosses in Their Immediate Context; J.Roberts The Palimpsest and Old English Homiletic Composition; P.E.Szarmach 'Ic Beda'...'Cwæð Beda': Reinscribing Bede in the Old English Historia ecclesiastica gentis anglorum ; S.Rowley Vernacular Engravings in Late Medieval England; F.Bourgne PART II: IMPERMANENCE AND ACCUMULATION IN THE LITERARY IMAGINATION Rewriting Genres: Beowulf as Epic Romance; L. Carruthers   Palimpsestic Philomela: Reinscription in Chaucer's Legend of Philomela ; G.Aloni The Middle English Breton Lays and the Mists of Origin; C.Vial Enquiries into the Textual History of the Seventeenth-Century Sir Lambewell (British Library, Additional 27897); C.Stévanovitch Elucidations: Bringing to Light the Aesthetic Underwriting of the Matière de Bretagne in John Boorman's Excalibur ; J-M.Elsholz