This online exhibit reflects a physical exhibit that was prepared by Dr. Brian McFadden (Notre Dame class of ‘99) and displayed in the Rare Book Room during the summer and fall of 1999. The rare books listed here reflect the development of a concentration on medieval British literature within the Department of English at Notre Dame. Dubbed the “Medieval Literature Initiative,” this new concentration on early studies has brought specialists Katherine O’Brien O’Keeffe, Maura Nolan, Jill Mann, and Michael Lapidge to the English Department to join medievalists Dolores Frese and Lewis Nicholson. Related to this initiative, the Notre Dame Press is publishing a new series, Studies in Early Literature, edited by Professor O’Brien O’Keeffe. Another consequence of the initiative is a vast increase in the acquisition of library materials relating to the field of medieval British studies in general.

The books on display include both recent acquisitions and selected important works from our existing collections such as the 1520 Chronicle of St. Albans and the Kelmscott Chaucer that are complemented and enhanced by newer acquisitions. Among the recent acquisitions you will see early antiquarian works on Roman and medieval Britain; Anglo-Saxon, Middle English, and other texts printed from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries; manuscripts in facsimile, including the Domesday Book, the Lambeth Apocalypse, and the Ellesmere Chaucer; and works that reflect the historiography of medieval Britain, such as those by Matthew Parker, Elizabeth Elstob, Sharon Turner, and others.

Laura Fuderer, Subject Librarian
For English and French Literature