Sarah Elliott Novacich - Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature: Shaping the Archive in Late Medieval England

Alastair Minnis, Yale University

Zygmunt G. Baraski, University of Cambridge

Christopher C. Baswell, Barnard College and Columbia University

John Burrow, University of Bristol

Mary Carruthers, New York University

Rita Copeland, University of Pennsylvania

Roberta Frank, Yale University

Simon Gaunt, Kings College, London

Steven Kruger, City University of New York

Nigel Palmer, University of Oxford

Winthrop Wetherbee, Cornell University

Jocelyn Wogan-Browne, Fordham University

A complete list of titles in the series can be found at .

Shaping the Archive in Late Medieval England

History, Poetry, and Performance

Sarah Elliott Novacich

Rutgers University, New Jersey

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Sarah Novacich 2017

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First published 2017

Printed in the United Kingdom by Clays, St Ives plc

A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-1-107-17705-5 Hardback

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This book is for my dad, Stephen, who knows how to ask a good question, and my mom, Elizabeth, who recognizes art everywhere.

I would like to thank Alastair Minnis and Roberta Frank, who first helped me to get started on this project, and who made me love the Middle Ages. Thanks also to Jessica Brantley, Nicole Rice, Denys Turner, and Matthew Giancarlo, whose far-ranging interests luckily include medieval drama, iconography, Dante, and Isidore of Seville.

The following friends and colleagues have been generous with their time, reading drafts, making key suggestions at key moments, and just generally helping the writing process to be a good one: Arthur Bahr, Seeta Chaganti, Ann Coiro, Susan Crane, Rebecca Davis, Elin Diamond, Lynn Festa, Shannon Gayk, Andy Heisel, Ben Yousey-Hindes, Eleanor Johnson, John Kucich, David Kurnick, Marisa Libbon, Lauren Mancia, Mukti Lakhi Mangharam, Jacqueline Miller, Laura Saetveit Miles, Liz Appel Mixter (and her wonderful thoughts on the ark), Ingrid Nelson, Jonah Siegel, Jennifer Sisk, Michelle Stephens, Henry Turner, Rebecca Walkowitz, Carolyn Williams, Diana Witt, and Abigail Zitin. I am grateful for the thoughtful suggestions and guidance offered by my department, the anonymous readers at Cambridge University Press, and Linda Bree. Brepols Publishers (Turnhout, Belgium) has kindly granted permission to reproduce part of Uxor Noe and the Animal Inventory, from New Medieval Literatures 12 (2010), in Chapter 3.

Special thanks are reserved for Marcus Elder, master of languages, Julia Fawcett, a wonderful scholar and friend, and my extended family, for their indulgence and support. I also am especially indebted to the generous support of Larry Scanlon and Stacy Klein, whose multiple read throughs have helped me to produce this final product.