Books by Ralph Hanna

An analysis of the importance of "textual criticism" as an act of historical interpretation and recovery in medieval literature. It points out the need for attention to the physical bearers of our knowledge of the English Middle Ages, the books and the features of manuscript culture.

'The Index of Middle English Prose' is an international collaborative project which will ultimately locate, identify and record all extant Middle English prose texts composed between c.1200 and c.1500, in both manuscript and printed form in medieval and post-medieval versions. The first step towards this goal has been this series of 'Handlists', each recording the holdings of a major library or group of libraries. Compiled by scholars, 'Handlists' include detailed descriptions of each prose item with identifications, categorisations and full bibliographical data. Every 'Handlist' will also contain a series of indexes including listings of opening and closing lines, authors, titles, subject matter and rubrics. For students of the middle ages 'Handlists' provide essential bibliographical tools and shed light on a wide range of subjects.

This book is conceived as a handbook for graduates interested in texts and their manuscript presentation, not solely in editing them. As such, it is potentially of broad interest in all fields from antiquity to early modern studies.

This mid fourteenth-century poem was one of the most popular Middle English texts in its time. This edition makes it accessible to modern scholars with full annotation, a comprehensive introduction, and detailed commentary.

Richard Rolle - the Yorkshire hermit, visionary and transmitter of religious counsel - was widely recognised in the later English Middle Ages as a major spiritual author.

English literary culture in the fourteenth century was vibrant and expanding, with a strongly local focus. Ralph Hanna charts the development and the generic and linguistic features particular to London writing and shows how romance, administrative and theological writing underwrote the great pre-Chaucerian London poem, William Langland's Piers Plowman.