The "Piers Plowman" Electronic Archive, Vol. 1

Corpus Christi College, Oxford, MS 201 (F)

William Langland

Edited by Robert Adams, Hoyt N. Duggan, Eric Eliason, Ralph Hanna, III, John Price-Wilkin, and Thorlac Turville-Petre

The first in a series of documentary editions of the "Piers Plowman" Electronic Archive

Description

Series

SEENET: Society for Early English and Norse Electronic Texts

MS 201, Corpus Christi College, Oxford appears as the first in a series of documentary editions for The Electronic Piers Plowman Archive. An early scribal version of the alpha family of the B text of Piers Plowman, this important but eccentric text has sixteen instead of twenty-one passus, and contains about 170 lines not shared with the majority of other B manuscripts.

This CD-ROM supplies an SGML-encoded version of the text alongside color images of the original manuscript pages. The SGML version allows for structured and complex searches of the text itself and the manuscript's paleographic and codicological features. This version conforms fully with the 1994 Text Encoding Initiative guidelines. For users not able to use the SGML reader (which works on Windows/95/98/NT), there are HTML versions of the text and images.

The Piers Plowman Electronic Archive, Vol. 1 is the first edition in the SEENET series.

For further information, see Frequently Asked Questions about the technical operation of the CD-ROM, or write to Hoyt Duggan (hnd@virginia.edu).

System Requirements

Windows
80486 processor with 8 MB RAM
Windows 3.1
Netscape 3.0 or Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0

For users who wish to run the SGML version: Windows 95/98/NT

Macintosh
For users who plan to use the HTML version:
Any model Mac or clone capable of Internet access.
Netscape 3.0 or Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0

Praise / Awards

"In authority, ambition, and detail, this product is at the high end of Middle English e-philology. . . . [T]his CD-ROM inaugurates an essential project on Chaucer's great, elusive contemporary and sets a high standard for electronic Middle English scholarship."
—A. Galloway, Cornell University, Choice, March 2001
"This electronic tool continues to present the highest standards for Middle English philology and more copious information than any printed facsimile of Middle English poetry has ever achieved. . . . This is a major editorial achievement."
—CHOICE, December 2001
"This CD-ROM offers a stunning facsimile of CCC 201 that is the next best thing to the original. The high-quality, full color, digital images offer excellent resolution, even when viewers zoom in on details. . . . Viewers can readily zoom in and out in order to move from small details to full manuscript leaf and can move up or down the page with ease. The device of a 'grabber' (in the guise of a small hand) allows the reader to push the manuscript leaf around the computer screen, providing a satisfyingly tactile virtual alternative to touching the actual manuscript page."
—Claire Sponsler, University of Iowa, Medieval Review, February 7, 2001 (Electronic)
"The wealth of visual, textual, and analytical information in this series and its meticulous editorial practice produce a notable advance in the available scholarly resources for Langland studies. . . . Students of Langland's poem, other Middle English scholars, and textual critics at large will find the depth of information made available by this and subsequent volumes of the Piers Plowman Electronic Archive a resource well worth exploring, mastering, and using."
—M. Teresa Tavormina, Michigan State University, Notes and Queries, June 2002
"If you are working in the field of medieval literature or manuscript studies this CD-ROM will prove an excellent addition to your collection and be of considerable use to both teachers and researchers."
—Stuart Lee, The Review of English Studies, Volume 52, No. 207