The Oxford History of Classical Reception in English Literature Volume 1: 800-1558

The Oxford History of Classical Reception in English Literature (OHCREL) is designed to offer a comprehensive investigation of the numerous and diverse ways in which literary texts of the classical world have stimulated responses and refashioning by English writers. Covering the full range of English literature from the early Middle Ages to the present day, OHCREL both synthesizes existing scholarship and presents cutting-edge new research, employing an international team of expert contributors for each of the five volumes.

OHCREL endeavours to interrogate, rather than inertly reiterate, conventional assumptions about literary 'periods', the processes of canon-formation, and the relations between literary and non-literary discourse. It conceives of 'reception' as a complex process of dialogic exchange and, rather than offering large cultural generalizations, it engages in close critical analysis of literary texts. It explores in detail the ways in which English writers' engagement with classical literature casts as much light on the classical originals as it does on the English writers' own cultural context.

This first volume covers the years c.800-1558, and surveys the reception and transformation of classical literary culture in England from the Anglo-Saxon period up to the Henrician era. Chapters on the classics in the medieval curriculum, the trivium and quadrivium, medieval libraries, and medieval mythography provide context for medieval reception. The reception of specific classical authors and traditions is represented in chapters on Virgil, Ovid, Lucan, Statius, the matter of Troy, Boethius, moral philosophy, historiography, biblical epics, English learning in the twelfth century, and the role of antiquity in medieval alliterative poetry. The medieval section includes coverage of Chaucer, Gower, and Lydgate, while the part of the volume dedicated to the later period explores early English humanism, humanist education, and libraries in the Henrician era, and includes chapters that focus on the classicism of Skelton, Douglas, Wyatt, and Surrey.

Rita Copeland, Rosenberg Chair in the Humanities and Professor of Classical Studies, English, and Comparative Literature, University of Pennsylvania

Edited by Rita Copeland, Rosenberg Chair in the Humanities and Professor of Classical Studies, English, and Comparative Literature, University of Pennsylvania

Rita Copeland is Rosenberg Chair in the Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania, and a Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America. Her fields of research include the history of rhetoric, literary theory, and medieval learning. She is a founder of the journal New Medieval Literatures, and co-founder of Toronto Series in Medieval and Early Modern Rhetoric. In addition to many articles, she has published the following books: Rhetoric, Hermeneutics, and Translation in the Middle Ages (1991), Criticism and Dissent in the Middle Ages (1996), Pedagogy, Intellectuals and Dissent in the Later Middle Ages (2001), Medieval Grammar and Rhetoric: Language Arts and Literary Theory, AD 300-1475 (with Ineke Sluiter) (2009), and The Cambridge Companion to Allegory (with Peter Struck) (2010).

List of Contributors
Abbreviations
1. Introduction, Rita Copeland
2. The Curricular Classics in the Middle Ages, Rita Copeland
3. Experiencing the Classics in Medieval Education, Marjorie Curry Woods
4. The Trivium and the Classics, Rita Copeland
5. The Quadrivium and Natural Sciences, Winston Black
6. The Transmission and Circulation of Classical Literature: Libraries and Florilegia, James Willoughby
7. Mythography and Mythographical Collections, Nicolette Zeeman
8. Academic Prologues to Authors, Rita Copeland
9. Virgil, Jan M. Ziolkowski
10. Ovid and Ovidianism, Suzanne Conklin Akbari
11. Lucan, Alfred Hiatt
12. Statius, Winthrop Wetherbee
13. Trojan Itineraries and the Matter of Troy, Marilynn Desmond
14. Boethius' De consolatione philosophiae, Ian Cornelius
15. Moral Philosophy and Wisdom Literature, Charles F. Briggs
16. Historiography and Biography from the Period of Gildas to Gerald of Wales, Cam Grey
17. Prudentius and the Late Classical Epics of Juvencus, Proba, Sedulius, Arator and Avitus, Ad Putter
18. John of Salisbury, Academic Scepticism, and Ciceronian Rhetoric, Dallas G. Denery II
19. Alliterative Poetry and the Time of Antiquity, Emily Steiner
20. Other Worlds: Chaucer's Classicism, Alastair Minnis
21. Gower's Ovids, Andrew Galloway
22. John Lydgate and the Remaking of Classical Epic, Robert R. Edwards
23. Early Humanism in England, Daniel Wakelin
24. Survey of Henrician Humanism, James Carley and Agnes Juhasz-Ormsby
25. John Skelton, David R. Carlson
26. Gavin Douglas' Eneados, Nicola Royan
27. Finding a Vernacular Voice: The Classical Translations of Sir Thomas Wyatt, Cathy Shrank
28. The Aeneid Translations of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey: The Exiled Reader's Presence, James Simpson
Select Bibliography of Ancient Sources
General Reference Works for Reception
Studies on Ancient Authors and Classical Reception
Medieval: Primary Sources
Medieval: Secondary Sources
Early Humanism: Primary Sources
Early Humanism: Secondary Sources