The Literary Culture of Early Modern Scotland

Manuscript Production and Transmission, 1560-1625

Sebastiaan Verweij

Provides a new understanding of Scottish literary history.
Argues for a re-assessment of what is generally understood about Renaissance manuscript culture in Scotland.
Stresses the importance of place, both the importance of where the manuscript was produced and where it was read.
Combines assessment of canonical texts, with lesser known works.
Winner of the Research Book of the Year Award 2016 (Scottish Saltire Literary Awards).

The Literary Culture of Early Modern Scotland

Manuscript Production and Transmission, 1560-1625

Sebastiaan Verweij

Description

This study presents a history of the literary culture of early-modern Scotland (1560-1625), based on extensive study of the literary manuscript. It argues for the importance of three key places of production of such manuscripts: the royal court, burghs and towns, and regional houses (stately homes, but also minor lairdly and non-aristocratic households). This attention to place facilitates a discussion of, respectively, courtly, urban or civic, and regional literary cultures. Sebastiaan Verweij's methodology stems from bibliographical scholarship and the study of the 'History of the Book', and more specifically, from a school of manuscript research that has invigorated early-modern English literary criticism over the last few decades. The Literary Culture of Early Modern Scotland will also intersect with a programme of reassessment of early-modern Scottish culture that is currently underway in Scottish studies. Traditional narratives of literary history have often regarded the Reformation of 1560 as heralding a terminal cultural decline, and the Union of Crowns of 1603, with the departure of king and court, was thought to have brought the briefest of renaissances (in the 1580s and 1590s) to an early end. This book purposefully straddles the Union, in order to make possible the rediscovery of Scotland's refined and sophisticated renaissance culture.

The Literary Culture of Early Modern Scotland

Manuscript Production and Transmission, 1560-1625

Sebastiaan Verweij

Introduction: Scottish Literary Texts and the Book History of Early Modern Britain
1. Courtly Literary Culture and Manuscripts of the Court
2. 'All the kings poesis': The Manuscripts of James VI
3. The Manuscripts of William Fowler
4. Manuscript Production, Transmission, and Urban Cultural Identities
5. Urban Developments: EUL MS Laing III.447
6. The Marks of Neighbourhood: Regional Manuscript Production and Transmission
7. The Verse Miscellanies of James Murray of Tibbermuir and Margaret Robertson of Lude
Conclusion: 'Off begynnnyng and ending'

The Literary Culture of Early Modern Scotland

Manuscript Production and Transmission, 1560-1625

Sebastiaan Verweij

Author Information

Sebastiaan Verweij, Lecturer in Late Medieval and Early Modern English Literature, University of Bristol

Sebastiaan Verweij was born in the Netherlands, obtained his PhD from the University of Glasgow, and is currently a Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Bristol. He previously worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge (2008-9), and the University of Oxford (2010-14). He has published several journal articles and book chapters on the literary and book history of Scotland. He is also the author, with Peter McCullough, of the (forthcoming) Textual Companion, volume 16 in The Oxford Edition of the Sermons of John Donne (OUP).

The Literary Culture of Early Modern Scotland

Manuscript Production and Transmission, 1560-1625

Sebastiaan Verweij

Reviews and Awards

Winner of Research Book of the Year 2016, Scottish Saltire

"Verweij is indefatigable in his assertion that this study is just the beginning. Indeed, he has mastered a great deal of primary and secondary material, making this book useful to both the neophyte and the expert. But it is the authorâs call for further research, and specific suggestions for avenues of additional inquiry, that makes this book even more valuable." -- Salvatore Cipriano, Boston College, Renaissance Quarterly

"The rich content, and the fresh connections, skilfully made, make this a landmark study." -- Janet Hadley Williams, Parergon

"There are many things to praise in this work, not least the close and informed engagement with the primary materials, including several manuscripts considered for the first time. Many of the characterisations of manuscripts and sequences of manuscripts are careful, thoughtful, and useful." -- Peter Davidson, The Seventeenth Century.

"His lucid précis of a wide range of existing research in book history, and the clear-sighted perspectives he brings to bear when applying this research to the matter at hand, speaks of his real mastery of the subject. It would be hard to say which came first - this theoretical subtlety, or what must have been tireless years of archival work - but manuscript studies has profited hugely, either way." --Deirdre Serjeantson, Scottish Literary Review