Chasing the Pearl-Manuscript
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Chasing the Pearl-Manuscript by Arthur Bahr
A unique study of the only physical manuscript containing Sir Gawain and the Green Knight as both a material and literary object. In this book, Arthur Bahr takes a fresh look at the four poems and twelve illustrations of the so-called “Pearl-Manuscript,” the only surviving medieval copy of two of the best-known Middle English poems: Pearl and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. In Chasing the Pearl-Manuscript, Bahr explores how the physical manuscript itself enhances our perception of the poetry, drawing on recent technological advances (such as spectroscopic analysis) to show the Pearl-Manuscript to be a more complex piece of material, visual, and textual art than previously understood. By connecting the manuscript’s construction to the intricate language in the texts, Bahr suggests new ways to understand both what poetry is and what poetry can do.
"Sophisticated" * Publishers Weekly *
“Chasing the Pearl-Manuscript elegantly explores the power of speculation and delight in the singular copy of some of the most beautiful medieval poetry that exists. Although manuscript study sometimes trades in empirical satisfactions, Bahr provides a salutary reminder that literary texts traffic in deliberate and artful impediments to solid knowledge. Exploring both what can be known about material texts and also what can be imagined, Bahr offers an adventurous multilayered reading of both text and book and provides an important reinterpretation of the codex and its poems.” -- Jessica Brantley, Yale University
“Like the hunters of the fleshly and the ineffable in the Pearl-poems themselves, Bahr tracks physical writing through the manuscript, down to movements of the pen or pointing hands (richly illustrated here). He thereby sets out an authoritative reading of these poems and, by reflecting on the value of speculating, a bold model for studying material texts and literary works together.” -- Daniel Wakelin, University of Oxford
“Intricate, passionate, continually surprising, and beautifully written, Chasing the Pearl-Manuscript is at once a brilliant successor to Bahr’s first book, Fragments and Assemblages, and a wondering tribute to a wondrous manuscript.” -- Nicholas Watson, Harvard University
“Chasing the Pearl-Manuscript elegantly explores the power of speculation and delight in the singular copy of some of the most beautiful medieval poetry that exists. Although manuscript study sometimes trades in empirical satisfactions, Bahr provides a salutary reminder that literary texts traffic in deliberate and artful impediments to solid knowledge. Exploring both what can be known about material texts and also what can be imagined, Bahr offers an adventurous multilayered reading of both text and book and provides an important reinterpretation of the codex and its poems.” -- Jessica Brantley, Yale University
“Like the hunters of the fleshly and the ineffable in the Pearl-poems themselves, Bahr tracks physical writing through the manuscript, down to movements of the pen or pointing hands (richly illustrated here). He thereby sets out an authoritative reading of these poems and, by reflecting on the value of speculating, a bold model for studying material texts and literary works together.” -- Daniel Wakelin, University of Oxford
“Intricate, passionate, continually surprising, and beautifully written, Chasing the Pearl-Manuscript is at once a brilliant successor to Bahr’s first book, Fragments and Assemblages, and a wondering tribute to a wondrous manuscript.” -- Nicholas Watson, Harvard University
Arthur Bahr is professor of literature and MacVicar Faculty Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the author of Fragments and Assemblages: Forming Compilations of Medieval London, also published by the University of Chicago Press.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780226835358 |
| ISBN 10 | 0226835359 |
| Title | Chasing the Pearl-Manuscript |
| Author | Arthur Bahr |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Publisher | The University of Chicago Press |
| Year published | 2025-03-11 |
| Number of pages | 240 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |