Cambridge University Press The Making of Textual Culture: 'Grammatica' and Literary Theory 350–1100: 19 (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature, Series Number 19)

This is the a major study of the cultural work performed by grammatica, the central discipline concerned with literacy, language, interpretation and literature in medieval society. Grammatica was, with all aspects of Latin literary text, its language, meaning and value. Martin Irvine demonstrates that grammatica, though the first of the liberal arts, was not simply one discipline among many: it had an essentially constitutive function, defining language, meaning and texts for other medieval disciplines. Martin Irvine draws together several aspects of medieval culture - literary theory, the nature of literacy, education, biblical interpretation, the literary canon and linguistic thought - in order to disclose the more far-reaching social effect of grammatica, chief of which was the making of textual culture in the medieval West. Review "The book is hugely comprehensive, drawing on a wide bibliography and some materials available only in manuscript. It is a very useful reference work." Nicolette Zeeman, Studies in the Age of Chaucer"His excellent study of this authorized method of reading does for the early Middle Ages what the work of scholars such as Judson Allen, Rita Copeland, Douglas Kelly, Alastair Minnis, and Marjorie Curry Woods has done for the later Middle Ages....It is essential reading for anyonne who seeks to understand the otherness of medieval litertaure." Martin Camargo, Modern Philology"This is an excellent book, a very important book which should be read or at least consulted by all students of the Middle Ages..." Manuscripta Book Description A major study of the implications of grammatica for literary theory and textual culture in the medieval West.