Prosopography of the Book and the Politics of Legal Language in Late Medieval England

This article explores the intersection of book history and prosopography. It uses several case studies of copies of the medieval parliamentary statutes translated into English, together with later copies of English statutes translated into French, to argue for both thick prosopographical study of in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of British studies 2014-07, Vol.53 (3), p.565-587
Main Author: Kennedy, Kathleen E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
13th century
15th century
Archives & records
Attorneys
Bible
British culture
Case studies
Culture
Datasets
England
English language
French language
Government officials
Historians
Historiography
History
Language
Language translation
Legislation
Linguistics
Material culture
Medieval history
Medieval literature
Narratives
Parliamentary law
Parliaments
Prosopography
Scribes
Statutes
Statutory law
Translations
United Kingdom
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Description
Summary:This article explores the intersection of book history and prosopography. It uses several case studies of copies of the medieval parliamentary statutes translated into English, together with later copies of English statutes translated into French, to argue for both thick prosopographical study of individual volumes and large, statistically based studies of books drawn from the largest possible data sets. Together, these methods amount to a new “prosopograhy of the book.” The case studies analyzed here reveal a complicated politicized relationship not only between script and print but also between French and English in the early Tudor era.
ISSN:0021-9371
1545-6986
DOI:10.1017/jbr.2014.105