Essays considering the relationship between Gower's texts and the physical ways in which they were first manifested.

Essays considering the relationship between Gower's texts and the physical ways in which they were first manifested.

The media in which Gower's works were first transmitted, whether in print of manuscript form, are of vital importance to an understanding of both the poet and his audience. However, in comparison with those of his contemporary Chaucer, they have been relatively little studied.
This volume represents a major collaboration between specialist scholars in manuscript and book history, and experts in Gower more generally, breaking new ground in approachingGower through first-hand study of his publications in manuscript and print. Its chapters consider such matters as manuscript and book illumination, provenance, variant texts and editions, scribes, and printers, looking at how, andto what degree, the materiality of the vellum, paper, ink and binding illuminates - and even implicates - the poet and his poetry.

MARTHA DRIVER is Distinguished Professor of English and Women's and Gender Studies at Pace University; DEREK PEARSALL is Gurney Professor of English Literature, Emeritus, Harvard University; R.F. YEAGER Is Professor of English and Foreign Languages, Emeritus, University of West Florida.

Contributors: Stephanie L. Batkie, Julia Boffey, Margaret Connolly, Siân Echard, A.S.G. Edwards, Robert Epstein, Brian W. Gastle, Amanda J. Gerber, Yoshiko Kobayashi, Aditi Nafde, Tamara Peréz-Fernández, Wendy Scase, Karla Taylor, David Watt.

Introduction - Martha W. Driver and Derek Pearsall and Robert F. Yeager
John Gower's Scribes and Literatim Copying - Wendy Scase
Looking for Richard: Finding "Moral Gower" in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Hatton 92 - Stephanie L. Batkie
A State above All Other: The Recensions ofConfessio Amantis and the Anthropology of Sovereignty - Robert Epstein
What Lies Beneath - Karla Taylor
Earthly Gower: Transforming Geographical Texts and Images in theConfessio Amantis andVox Clamantis Manuscripts - Amanda J. Gerber
Paratextual Deviations: The Transmission and Translation of Gower'sConfessio Amantis in the Iberian Peninsula - Tamara Peréz-Fernández
"Mescreantz," Schism, and the Plight of Constantinople: Evidence for Dating and Reading London, British Library, Additional MS 59495 - David Watt
John Shirley and John Gower - Margaret Connolly
Gower between Manuscript and Print - Sian Echard
Gower from Print to Manuscript: Copying Caxton in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Hatton 51 - Aditi Nafde
A CaxtonConfessio: Readers and Users from Westminster to Chapel Hill - Brian Gastle
English Poets in Print: Advertising Authorship from Caxton to Berthelet - Julia Boffey
In Praise of European Peace: Gower's Verse Epistle in Thynne's 1532 Edition of Chaucer'sWorkes - Yoshiko Kobayashi
George Campbell Macaulay and the Clarendon Edition of Gower - A S G Edwards
Bibliography