From memorandum to written record: function and formality in Old English non-literary texts

Lowe, K. A. (2020) From memorandum to written record: function and formality in Old English non-literary texts. In: Gallagher, R., Roberts, E. and Tinti, F. (eds.) The Languages of Early Medieval Charters: Latin, Germanic Vernaculars, and the Written Word. Series: Brill’s series on the early Middle Ages, 27. Brill: Leiden, The Netherlands, pp. 440-487. ISBN 9789004428119 (doi: 10.1163/9789004432338_013)

Abstract

In this chapter, I consider a set of four Old English non-literary texts of indeterminate date spanning the Conquest from the abbey of Bury St Edmunds within the context of more securely datable and localisable texts surviving from the archive. Texts such as these, which range from booklists to funerary arrangements, liminal both in terms of date and of type, are excluded from the charter corpus and therefore frequently overlooked. However, these texts together are testament to a wider use of the written word in early medieval England than is still often acknowledged in scholarship, and also present important evidence for the development of the language during the transition from Old to Middle English. The article includes appendices itemising additions to the Sawyer catalogue and of texts comprising the records series used in the compilation of the ongoing Dictionary of Old English.

• Item Type: Book Sections
• Additional Information: eISBN: 9789004432338.
• Status: Published
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Lowe, Dr Kathryn
• Authors: Lowe, K. A.
• Subjects: C Auxiliary Sciences of History > CD Diplomatics. Archives. Seals; D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D111 Medieval History; P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics; P Language and Literature > PE English; Z Bibliography. Library Science. Information Resources > Z004 Books. Writing. Paleography
• College/School: College of Arts > School of Critical Studies > English Language and Linguistics
• Publisher: Brill
• ISBN: 9789004428119
• Published Online: 16 November 2020
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2021 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
• First Published: First published in The Languages of Early Medieval Charters: Latin, Germanic Vernaculars, and the Written Word: 440-487
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy