Designing English : Early Literature on the Page

'a welcome addition to a growing corpus of scholarship on pre-modern reading ... a big, gorgeous book, lavishly illustrated.' - TLS

A beautiful book exploring eight centuries of graphic design in manuscripts and inscriptions - the exhibition catalogue to a show at Oxford's Bodleian Library.

Early manuscripts in the English language include religious works, plays, romances, poetry and songs, as well as charms, notebooks, science and medieval medicine. Given this vast array, how did scribes choose to arrange the words and images on the page, and what visual guides did they give early readers to help them use and understand each manuscript?

Surveying eight centuries of graphic design in manuscripts and inscriptions, Designing English focuses on the craft, agency, and intentions of scribes, painters, and engravers from the Anglo-Saxon to the early Tudor periods.

The book examines format, layout, and decoration, as well as bilingual manuscripts and oral recitations, weighing the balance of ingenuity and copying, imagination and practicality, behind early English book design. With over ninety illustrations, drawn especially from the holdings of the Bodleian Library, Designing English gives a comprehensive overview of English books and other material texts across the Middle Ages.

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