The Index of Middle English Prose: Handlist XXIII: The Rawlinson Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford

A series which is "a monumental achievement" (Review of English Studies).

In 1755 Richard Rawlinson bequeathed his vast collection of books and manuscripts to the Bodleian Library. The manuscripts alone numbered over 5,000, and the 167 of these which contain Middle English prose are indexed in this Handlist. These are divided fairly evenly between religious and secular texts: Rawlinson does not seem to have been interested in any particular genre; if a book was old and deemed to be of histor...