Myra Seaman is Professor of English at the College of Charleston

"A provocation and a fruitful alternative to our typical ways of approaching a manuscript ... This book’s synthesis of codicology—long one of the most traditional of disciplines—with some of the highest of high theory will cause readers who come from each respective field to stretch and read out of their comfort zone. This is a good thing, to be clear." Michael Johnston, Studies in the Age of Chaucer"Objects of Affection is in part a book about a love affair—Seaman’s, for Ashmole 61—and the ways in which scholarly affection can produce new and invigorated ways of reading ... The result is a book with much to offer those working on late medieval English households and the objects—including books like Ashmole 61—that mattered to and moved their inhabitants." Lisa H. Cooper, Speculum"Myra Seaman’s thoughtful and thought-provoking study of MS Ashmole 61 accommodates both an incisive analysis of the varied contents and moral contributions of this late-medieval household book, and a powerful rumination on the nature and appeal of the codex in an increasingly digital age ... Objects of Affection adroitly pushes against the perception of household books or ‘miscellanies’ as merely haphazard, offering an impressive recuperation of neglected or disparaged texts as well as a compelling invitation to a way of reading that emphasizes how humans form part of communities that include non-human agentive objects." Megan G. Leitch, Arthuriana'Myra Seaman’s Objects of Affection is an important, often enchanting contribution to this body of work, blending new materialist methodologies with traditional codicology and close reading to trace some of the literary and emotional effects produced by a single idiosyncratic book: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Ashmole 61.'Arthur Bahr, A Journal of the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies

• Introduction: objects, assemblages, affects, ecologies1 Objects of instruction2 Objects of mercy3 Objects of correction4 Testimonial objects5 Objects of liberationEpilogue: fishing for answersAppendix: contents of Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Ashmole 61BibliographyIndex

Myra Seaman is Professor of English at the College of Charleston

"A provocation and a fruitful alternative to our typical ways of approaching a manuscript ... This book’s synthesis of codicology—long one of the most traditional of disciplines—with some of the highest of high theory will cause readers who come from each respective field to stretch and read out of their comfort zone. This is a good thing, to be clear." Michael Johnston, Studies in the Age of Chaucer"Objects of Affection is in part a book about a love affair—Seaman’s, for Ashmole 61—and the ways in which scholarly affection can produce new and invigorated ways of reading ... The result is a book with much to offer those working on late medieval English households and the objects—including books like Ashmole 61—that mattered to and moved their inhabitants." Lisa H. Cooper, Speculum"Myra Seaman’s thoughtful and thought-provoking study of MS Ashmole 61 accommodates both an incisive analysis of the varied contents and moral contributions of this late-medieval household book, and a powerful rumination on the nature and appeal of the codex in an increasingly digital age ... Objects of Affection adroitly pushes against the perception of household books or ‘miscellanies’ as merely haphazard, offering an impressive recuperation of neglected or disparaged texts as well as a compelling invitation to a way of reading that emphasizes how humans form part of communities that include non-human agentive objects." Megan G. Leitch, Arthuriana'Myra Seaman’s Objects of Affection is an important, often enchanting contribution to this body of work, blending new materialist methodologies with traditional codicology and close reading to trace some of the literary and emotional effects produced by a single idiosyncratic book: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Ashmole 61.'Arthur Bahr, A Journal of the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies

• Introduction: objects, assemblages, affects, ecologies1 Objects of instruction2 Objects of mercy3 Objects of correction4 Testimonial objects5 Objects of liberationEpilogue: fishing for answersAppendix: contents of Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Ashmole 61BibliographyIndex

Myra Seaman is Professor of English at the College of Charleston

"A provocation and a fruitful alternative to our typical ways of approaching a manuscript ... This book’s synthesis of codicology—long one of the most traditional of disciplines—with some of the highest of high theory will cause readers who come from each respective field to stretch and read out of their comfort zone. This is a good thing, to be clear." Michael Johnston, Studies in the Age of Chaucer"Objects of Affection is in part a book about a love affair—Seaman’s, for Ashmole 61—and the ways in which scholarly affection can produce new and invigorated ways of reading ... The result is a book with much to offer those working on late medieval English households and the objects—including books like Ashmole 61—that mattered to and moved their inhabitants." Lisa H. Cooper, Speculum"Myra Seaman’s thoughtful and thought-provoking study of MS Ashmole 61 accommodates both an incisive analysis of the varied contents and moral contributions of this late-medieval household book, and a powerful rumination on the nature and appeal of the codex in an increasingly digital age ... Objects of Affection adroitly pushes against the perception of household books or ‘miscellanies’ as merely haphazard, offering an impressive recuperation of neglected or disparaged texts as well as a compelling invitation to a way of reading that emphasizes how humans form part of communities that include non-human agentive objects." Megan G. Leitch, Arthuriana'Myra Seaman’s Objects of Affection is an important, often enchanting contribution to this body of work, blending new materialist methodologies with traditional codicology and close reading to trace some of the literary and emotional effects produced by a single idiosyncratic book: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Ashmole 61.'Arthur Bahr, A Journal of the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies

• Introduction: objects, assemblages, affects, ecologies1 Objects of instruction2 Objects of mercy3 Objects of correction4 Testimonial objects5 Objects of liberationEpilogue: fishing for answersAppendix: contents of Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Ashmole 61BibliographyIndex