Premium
The Manuscripts of Piers Plowman
Author(s) -
Eyler Joshua R.,
Benson C. David
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
literature compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.158
H-Index - 4
ISSN - 1741-4113
DOI - 10.1111/j.1741-4113.2005.00132.x
Subject(s) - poetry , scholarship , literature , art , psychology , classics , law , political science
Piers Plowman is one of the most highly regarded late medieval English poems, although at times it can also be one of the more frustrating works, in large part because of its existence in three distinct versions (A, B, and C) and its complex transmission history. In this essay we examine the scholarship regarding the manuscripts and the scribes of Piers Plowman , from W. W. Skeat onwards, and we also explore new tools now available for the study of the manuscripts, such as the Piers Plowman Electronic Archive , which promise to change the way we read, teach, and research the poem.