Gale, part of Cengage Learning, today announced the release of British Literary Manuscripts Online, Medieval and Renaissance, the second installment of the British Literary Manuscripts Online series. Following the release of the first installment in May 2009, this new digital archive brings approximately 565,000 pages of unique author manuscripts into the hands of students, educators and researchers.
"This fascinating series, selected from a multitude of leading world libraries, delivers insights into the culture and context surrounding centuries of British literary achievement," said Jim Draper, vice president and publisher, Gale. "Gale is proud to be the first publisher to conceptualize and publish a collection of this vast range and depth."
Cross-searchable with British Literary Manuscripts, c. 1660-1900, the first installment in the series, Medieval and Renaissance presents an extraordinary view into the culture and history of renowned and lesser-known writers of the period. The collection features works from more than 1,000 authors and more than 500 years of manuscripts dating from roughly 1100 to 1660—preceding and broadening the scope of the first series. It offers hundreds of thousands of pages of letters, poems, stories, plays, chronicles, religious writings and other materials.
The Medieval documents include notable works of early English literature – Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Vision of Piers the Plowman, and The Canterbury Tales, in addition to religious works such as The Prick of Conscience, the York and Coventry Mystery Plays and the writings of John Wycliffe, Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe. Scholars will also find important cultural and historical sources like the letters of Alcuin and Lanfranc and the 1488 manuscripts of Barbour's Life and Acts of Robert the Bruce. Well-known Renaissance authors include John Donne, Thomas Campion, Sir Philip Sidney, Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Thomas Wyatt. Also included are transcriptions of works by Shakespeare.
The manuscripts in British Literary Manuscripts Online, Medieval and Renaissance were selected from a number of institutions, including The British Library, the National Library of Scotland, the Folger Shakespeare Library, and the Forster and Dyce Collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Library customers can select British Literary Manuscripts Online, Medieval and Renaissance as a stand-alone product or, for a more comprehensive resource, it can be combined and cross-searched with British Literary Manuscripts Online, c. 1660-1900, which includes thousands of pages of poems, plays, essays, novels, diaries, journals, correspondence and other manuscripts from the Restoration through the Victorian era.
For more information or to set up a trial of the British Literary Manuscripts Online series, please contact Kristina Massari at kristina.massari@cengage.com.
About Cengage Learning and Gale
Cengage Learning is a leading provider of innovative teaching, learning and research solutions for the academic, professional and library markets worldwide. Gale, part of Cengage Learning, serves the world's information and education needs through its vast and dynamic content pools, which are used by students and consumers in their libraries, schools and on the Internet. It is best known for the accuracy, breadth and convenience of its data, addressing all types of information needs—from homework help to health questions to business profiles—in a variety of formats. For more information, visit www.cengage.com or www.gale.cengage.com.