New Directions in Later Medieval Manuscript Studies. Edited by Derek Pearsall. Woodbridge, Suffolk: York Medieval Press, 2000. Pp. xv + 213; 19 illustrations. $90.00.

Prestige, Authority and Power in Late Medieval Manuscripts and Texts. Edited by Felicity Riddy. Woodbridge, Suffolk: York Medieval Press, 2000. Pp. vii + 199; 21 illustrations. $90.00.

"In our questions lie our principles of analysis, and our answers may express whatever those principles are able to yield." These words by Susanne Langer, written sixty years ago in her landmark book Philosophy in a New Key, appropriately come to mind when considering these two essay collections. Read side by side, these volumes offer, to an unusual extent, a fair and comprehensive array of those principles of analysis that have followed from new questions posed by leading students of the medieval book during the past twenty-five years. In rich variety, the twenty-three essays here presented serve well to define, illustrate, and affirm the value of contemporary manuscript study as a fruitful tool of inquiry into late medieval culture, as seen primarily in the context of England.

C. Paul Christianson
San Francisco