The Index of Middle English Prose, Handlist XVI: Manuscripts in the Laudian Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford. By S. J. Ogilvie-Thomson. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2000. Pp. xxii + 140. $60.

The Index of Middle English Prose, Handlist XVII: Manuscripts in the Library of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. By Kari Anne Rand Schmidt. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2001. Pp. xxvi + 168. $60.

Anyone who has endeavored to edit a Middle English prose text, secular or religious, has encountered the deep frustration of combing through obsolete eighteenth- and nineteenth-century manuscript catalogs in search of all known surviving copies. In most of these, the catalogers, having a greater interest in the Latin or verse contents, dismiss the Middle English prose materials with inadequate or erroneous descriptions for what we now know is a large and complex corpus of vernacular prose works. Instead, many have relied on J. E. Wells's A Manual of the Writings in Middle English, 1050-1400, and its supplements, the Severs and Hartung revision of Wells, which is almost complete, and P. S. Jolliffe's A Check-List of Middle English Writings of Spiritual Guidance-all of which scholars have been adding to and emending since their publication. In recent years, thanks to the industry of a group of prominent scholars in manuscript studies, the Index of Middle English Prose handlists have come to the aid of all working in this area. And the eventual index-the end product of these handlists-will be an inestimable contribution to the field. Though a daunting task, preparation of the handlists of individual collections has seemed the most practical way to deal with the sheer volume and variety of Middle English prose the IMEP will cover. Yet the handlists are valuable in their own right, and the editors of the earlier volumes have established a high level of accuracy and comprehensiveness.

Jill C. Havens
Baylor University