What do you buy for a bibliophile?
I’m in a happy position, but it’s complicated. I’ve got a *massive* book voucher to spend on anything I want. But what do I want? Not novels… I already own many hundreds more than I will probably ever find the time to read, and I have access to the even more substantial fiction collections of various family members. I want to spend my loot on something meaningful, and so this morning I’m pondering what exactly are the fundamental texts that any medievalist worth her or his salt ought to own. I already have my own copy of Lewis & Short’s Latin Dictionary – a lucky find on the Blackwell’s second-hand shelf about a decade ago; I own Latham’s Medieval Latin from British and Irish Sources; I’ve got one and a half sets of Tout’s Chapters in the administrative history of mediaeval England, and both medieval volumes from the English Historical Documents series; if you’ve been reading closely you know that I recently acquired Powicke on King Henry III and the Lord Edward, and I already have his The Thirteenth Century — another lucky second-hand find in York a couple of years back; I’ve also got both the earlier and later medieval volumes of the much more recent Social History of England, and a miscellany of royal biographies… In fact I have four full-height bookshelves of assorted medieval ‘stuff’, but I’m sure there are things I don’t have that I ought.
What would you do? Get something shiny and new, reflecting up-to-date scholarship? Or invest in the big reference tomes like the New Cambridge Medieval History? Primary sources? Readers for undergraduate teaching ideas? Specialist works? General surveys? What are the indisputable must-haves on your list? I need some inspiration, because for some perverse reason it’s much harder to know what to do with windfalls when they fall, than it is to dream about what you would do with the money when you haven’t any!
[Edit: it turns out it's quite difficult, nay, impossible, to get second hand volumes through this outlet, so we're looking at stuff that's still in print on this occasion, folks...]
13 comments
Comments feed for this article
February 25, 2013 at 10:58 am
Susan Abernethy
Congratulations on the windfall! I would get the Paston Letters and then any of the Yale British Monarchs biographies I don’t have. I’d also look into books on medieval women and queens because that’s where my main interest lies. Please keep us posted on what you get!
February 25, 2013 at 12:07 pm
Kathleen Neal
Good thinking Susan. I have an elderly edition of the Paston letters, but I’m not sure if a more recent one would be of use to me in current work… I might think about some of the Yale series. I’ve got Edward I (naturally!) and there isn’t a Henry III one (I very much hope David Carpenter is going to do one sooner or later), but I could definitely use Edward II and III, and maybe some of the early Norman kings.
February 25, 2013 at 7:32 pm
midgardarts
I second the Paston letters (the Davis ed., revised and expanded by Richmond are out in a 3 volume version from EETS, who were supposed to published them originally but they went to Oxford instead).
February 26, 2013 at 8:58 am
Kathleen Neal
Thanks – great to know which editions are recommended.
February 25, 2013 at 11:56 am
Curt Emanuel
I’d be looking at reference books IF my University library didn’t have it already. I’m much earlier so this won’t be of any much use but The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire would be a must. Then Brill’s Transformation of the Roman World Series. Do you have Aquinas’ Summa?
February 25, 2013 at 12:04 pm
Kathleen Neal
Oh – good one.
No, I don’t. That might have to go on the short-list. Thanks Curt!
February 25, 2013 at 7:22 pm
Richard Cassidy
Back to basics. Close rolls and patent rolls, if you can find them. Matthew Paris, and Annales Monastici. Those are the ones I need to hand, at any rate.
Did you notice David Carpenter saying that his favourite history book is Ramsay, Dawn of the Constitution? He was just being David, I think, but it is an interesting choice for a straightforward chronological narrative (which we all need sometimes, just to get things in the right order).
February 26, 2013 at 8:58 am
Kathleen Neal
I see your logic, although I actually have almost the complete set of Patent Rolls and all the Close Rolls for Henry III and Edward I in pdf format, all already heavily annotated with electronic ‘sticky notes’… I’m not sure hard copies would get much use (even though as material objects they’d be great to have on the shelf, and I recognise that they would probably have more longevity than a digital file…). Shall ponder more.
February 26, 2013 at 5:31 pm
Kathleen Neal
Hmmm… turns out this particular outlet only deals in new/in print titles. That cuts it down…
March 5, 2013 at 3:16 pm
Kathleen Neal
This has been a fun yet rather painful process! After lots of reflection and several changes of heart, I’ve gone for the following, a blend of teaching texts, new work and essential editions for future projects:
1. Readings in Medieval History, Fourth Edition, Edited by Patrick J. Geary (Toronto: UTP, 2010).
2. Caroline Burt, Edward I and the Governance of England, 1272–1307 (Cambridge: CUP, 2012).
3. The Parliament Rolls of Medieval England, 1275-1504, vol I: Edward I. 1275-1294, Edited by Paul Brand (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2012).
4. The Parliament Rolls of Medieval England, 1275-1504, vol. II: Edward I. 1294 -1307, Edited by Paul Brand (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2012).
March 10, 2013 at 12:39 am
Historian on the Edge
I hope you have enough left over for Worlds of Arthur: Facts and Fictions of the Dark Ages.
March 10, 2013 at 8:01 am
Kathleen Neal
It’s in the next batch on my wishlist – especially since there’s a unit on Arthur: History and Myth taught here at Monash!
April 16, 2013 at 1:20 pm
Books | In Thirteenth Century England
[...] recent purchases have just arrived! This calls for celebration… and planning of future [...]