Anglo-Norman Literature: A Guide to Texts and Literature.(Book Review)

Anglo-Norman Literature: A Guide to Texts and Literature. By RUTH J. DEAN. (Anglo Norman Text Society, Occasional Series, 3) London: Anglo Norman Text Society, 1999. xviii + 553 pp. 35 [pounds sterling]; $49. ISBN 0-9054-7438-4.

Originally conceived as a revision and updating of J. Vising's invaluable Anglo-Norman Language and Literature (London: Oxford University Press, 1923), this monumental manual has far outstripped its slim predecessor in its ambition and realization. Its 553 pages list 986 items and more than a thousand manuscripts, and are the culmination of decades of painstaking and meticulous research. It is a truly remarkable achievement, and must now be considered an indispensable tool for any scholar concerned with Anglo-Norman literature of indeed with Old French literature in general. Each entry includes a brief description of the work concerned, with relevant information on the author, date, and patron. It then records the incipit and lists all manuscripts containing the text, together with its most recent editions. The item concludes with a reference to corresponding entries in Vising, Legge, and the Grundriss, and occasionally with a brief discussion of literary problems and criticism when appropriate. In analysing her corpus, Ruth Dean has abandoned the distribution of Vising, which was chronological, and has classified her entries by subject. There are two main categories, secular and religious, each of these being divided into subcategories. The first comprises historiographical literature, the lyric, romances and lais, fables and satirical texts, and science, technology, and medicine. The category of religious texts is hierarchical, consisting of biblical, apocryphal, hagiographical, homiletical, and devotional works. Legal texts are excluded. The volume also includes a concordance to Vising and indexes of manuscripts, incipits, and texts.

Inevitably, the author has ...