
Contents
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
‘Constant Partings’: The Dissolution as Provenance Narrative ‘Constant Partings’: The Dissolution as Provenance Narrative
-
‘The Father of English Studies’: The Dissolution as Ghost Story ‘The Father of English Studies’: The Dissolution as Ghost Story
-
‘A Confus’d Indigested Heap’: Fragment and Whole ‘A Confus’d Indigested Heap’: Fragment and Whole
-
‘Band of brothers’: The Witness and Textual Lineage ‘Band of brothers’: The Witness and Textual Lineage
-
‘This branch may be his wife’: Provenance and the Imagined Past ‘This branch may be his wife’: Provenance and the Imagined Past
-
Notes Notes
-
Select Bibliography Select Bibliography
-
-
-
-
-
-
35 Provenance Narratives in the Twenty-First Century
Get accessKathryn James is the Rare Book Librarian at the Yale Law Library. She is recently the author of English Paleography and Manuscript Culture, 1500–1800 (Yale University Press, 2020) and co-editor with Phil Withington of ‘Intoxicants and Early Modern European Globalization’, a special issue of Historical Journal (2022).
-
Published:18 September 2023
Cite
Abstract
This chapter examines the provenance narrative as a form of ontological mediation, a mechanism by which the text-object is framed as the focus of study. It argues that, as a narrative, the provenance history indelibly influences the categories by which the object is or isn’t presented to its observers. Taking the work of John Leland, Thomas Hearne, M. R. James, and others as its focus, the chapter argues that the Dissolution of the Monasteries and the consequent destruction of their libraries acted as an originating provenance for the study of the book in the early modern period. It examines the long consequences of this for the field of English Studies and the categories by which that field was defined and understood by practitioners from the sixteenth century onwards. One consequence can be seen in the prioritization of ideals of intactness, completeness, or textual recovery in English bibliographical work, and in the ways in which the text-object is defined through its relationship with the imagined plenum and prelapsarian state of a pre-dissolution world.
Sign in
Personal account
- Sign in with email/username & password
- Get email alerts
- Save searches
- Purchase content
- Activate your purchase/trial code
- Add your ORCID iD
Purchase
Our books are available by subscription or purchase to libraries and institutions.
Purchasing informationMonth: | Total Views: |
---|---|
September 2023 | 5 |
October 2023 | 4 |
November 2023 | 7 |
December 2023 | 1 |
January 2024 | 4 |
February 2024 | 4 |
March 2024 | 8 |
April 2024 | 6 |
May 2024 | 9 |
June 2024 | 18 |
July 2024 | 8 |
August 2024 | 1 |
September 2024 | 3 |
October 2024 | 4 |
December 2024 | 7 |
January 2025 | 4 |
February 2025 | 5 |
April 2025 | 5 |
Get help with access
Institutional access
Access to content on Oxford Academic is often provided through institutional subscriptions and purchases. If you are a member of an institution with an active account, you may be able to access content in one of the following ways:
IP based access
Typically, access is provided across an institutional network to a range of IP addresses. This authentication occurs automatically, and it is not possible to sign out of an IP authenticated account.
Sign in through your institution
Choose this option to get remote access when outside your institution. Shibboleth/Open Athens technology is used to provide single sign-on between your institution’s website and Oxford Academic.
If your institution is not listed or you cannot sign in to your institution’s website, please contact your librarian or administrator.
Sign in with a library card
Enter your library card number to sign in. If you cannot sign in, please contact your librarian.
Society Members
Society member access to a journal is achieved in one of the following ways:
Sign in through society site
Many societies offer single sign-on between the society website and Oxford Academic. If you see ‘Sign in through society site’ in the sign in pane within a journal:
If you do not have a society account or have forgotten your username or password, please contact your society.
Sign in using a personal account
Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members. See below.
Personal account
A personal account can be used to get email alerts, save searches, purchase content, and activate subscriptions.
Some societies use Oxford Academic personal accounts to provide access to their members.
Viewing your signed in accounts
Click the account icon in the top right to:
Signed in but can't access content
Oxford Academic is home to a wide variety of products. The institutional subscription may not cover the content that you are trying to access. If you believe you should have access to that content, please contact your librarian.
Institutional account management
For librarians and administrators, your personal account also provides access to institutional account management. Here you will find options to view and activate subscriptions, manage institutional settings and access options, access usage statistics, and more.