Reading in the Wilderness: Private Devotion and Public Performance in Late Medieval England

Contents......Page 8
List of Illustrations......Page 10
List of Abbreviations......Page 16
Acknowledgments......Page 18
1. Introduction: The Performance of Reading......Page 20
2. “Silence Visible”: Carthusian Devotional Reading and Meditative Practice......Page 46
Backgrounds: The Carthusian Order......Page 47
Carthusians and Books......Page 65
Carthusians and Art......Page 76
3. The Shapes of Eremitic Reading in the Desert of Religion......Page 106
The Desert of Religion as Imagetext......Page 110
“Als Wildernes Is Wroght þis Boke”: Formats of Monastic Books......Page 122
Reading Spiritual Community in the Wilderness......Page 136
4. Lyric Imaginings and Painted Prayers......Page 148
The Eremitic Lyric and Richard Rolle......Page 161
Imagining the Carthusian Reader......Page 179
5 Liturgical Pageantry in Private Spaces......Page 194
Reading the Liturgy: Two Models......Page 196
Performing the Holy Name......Page 205
Performing the Canonical Hours......Page 222
Performing the Seven Sacraments......Page 228
6. Envisioning Dialogue in Performance......Page 238
“In Maner of a Dyaloge It Wente”......Page 242
Allegorical Dialogues: The Pilgrimage of the Soul......Page 267
Mystical Dialogues: The Treatise of the Seven Points of True Love and Everlasting Wisdom......Page 286
7. Dramatizing the Cell: Theatrical Performances in Monastic Reading......Page 296
Dramatic Texts, Lyric Voices, and Private Readers......Page 297
Theatrical Reading in Additional 37049......Page 305
Monastic Closet Drama......Page 317
8. Conclusion: Reading Performances......Page 328
Appendix: Contents of British Library MS Additional 37049......Page 334
Notes......Page 354
Bibliography......Page 422
Index of Manuscript Shelfmarks......Page 476
Subject Index......Page 480