English Language and Literature

This project has investigated the manuscripts of all literary works by five major Middle English writers (the manuscripts dating 1375-1600), Geoffrey Chaucer, Thomas Hoccleve, William Langland, John Gower and John Trevisa, to find relationships among the writers and their patrons and audiences through the identification of the scribes who wrote the manuscripts. We will have examined over 300 manuscripts in libraries worldwide, and analyzed the number of hands in each manuscript and the other manuscripts written by these hands.

Elizabeth, countess of Shrewsbury (c.1522-1608), known as ‘Bess of Hardwick’, is one of Elizabethan England most famous figures. She is renowned for her reputation as an indomitable matriarch and dynast and perhaps best known as the builder of great stately homes like the magnificent Hardwick Hall and Chatsworth House. The story of her life as told to date takes little account of her more than 230 letters. The aim of the project is to make these letters accessible by producing a searchable, interactive online edition of all ca. 230 letters written to and from Bess of Hardwick.

The Bibliography of Scottish Literature in Translation (BOSLIT) is an online resource that offers an extensive and readily accessible source of information about Scottish literature in translation. With currently over 25,000 records, and steadily increasing, BOSLIT aims to serve the needs of academic researchers, writers and translators, libraries, schools, literature administrators and general readers.

The project is a prosopographical study of the English convents in exile during the period 1600-1800 when it was illegal to be a nun in Britain. Key research questions include a broad response to the question 'Who were the nuns?' This involves locating the members in their family, religious, political and economic context and identifying the support networks sustaining the convents over two centuries.