{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/105745"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/105745","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Simple books for devout readers: Recovering a fifteenth-century middle English genre","abstract":"This project recovers an overlooked fifteenth-century genre using a methodology informed by Object-Oriented Ontology. I collected fourteen manuscripts based on shared core features—portable size, small text box, textualis-leaning script, simple layout, primarily black ink with sparse yet helpful rubrication, and few or no illustrations. I argue that these books constitute a Middle English devotional genre, which I call the Simple Book. All of these books not only share a format, they also share similar types of devotional texts, and ultimately the format and texts work in tandem to create a humble, devotional reading experience. The Simple Book offered a rich, meaningful, and complete devotional reading program to readers with limited means. It defines itself by its use, both in its physical presentation to readers and in its narrative structuring, which I describe as both “welcoming” and “friendly.” By illustrating how a shift from named entities (title, author) to physical affordances makes anonymous texts and their readers legible, this materials-first approach to Middle English devotional manuscripts suggests alternate ways to address the problematically unwieldy genre of the “devotional miscellany.”","abstract_html":"This project recovers an overlooked fifteenth-century genre using a methodology informed by Object-Oriented Ontology. I collected fourteen manuscripts based on shared core features—portable size, small text box, textualis-leaning script, simple layout, primarily black ink with sparse yet helpful rubrication, and few or no illustrations. I argue that these books constitute a Middle English devotional genre, which I call the Simple Book. All of these books not only share a format, they also share similar types of devotional texts, and ultimately the format and texts work in tandem to create a humble, devotional reading experience. The Simple Book offered a rich, meaningful, and complete devotional reading program to readers with limited means. It defines itself by its use, both in its physical presentation to readers and in its narrative structuring, which I describe as both “welcoming” and “friendly.” By illustrating how a shift from named entities (title, author) to physical affordances makes anonymous texts and their readers legible, this materials-first approach to Middle English devotional manuscripts suggests alternate ways to address the problematically unwieldy genre of the “devotional miscellany.”","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Weisweaver, Sara"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"English","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Camargo, Martin","Wright, Charles D.","Barrett, Robert","Symes, Carol"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2019,"date_issued":"2019-11-26T20:49:01Z","date_published":"2019-11-26T20:49:01Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:45Z","subjects":["Middle English, devotional miscellany, devotional anthology, object-oriented ontology, OOO, manuscript studies, fifteenth-century England, common profit, vernacular anthology, vernacular miscellany, vernacular devotional literature, devotional literature, medieval devotional literature, new materialism, textualis, gothic textualis, medieval codicology"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright 2019 Sara Weisweaver"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/105745","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Camargo, Martin","Wright, Charles D.","Barrett, Robert","Symes, Carol"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Weisweaver, Sara"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2019-11-26T20:49:01Z","2021-11-27T10:15:33Z","2019-06-10","2019-08"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["English"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Middle English, devotional miscellany, devotional anthology, object-oriented ontology, OOO, manuscript studies, fifteenth-century England, common profit, vernacular anthology, vernacular miscellany, vernacular devotional literature, devotional literature, medieval devotional literature, new materialism, textualis, gothic textualis, medieval codicology"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2019 Sara Weisweaver"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/105745"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["This project recovers an overlooked fifteenth-century genre using a methodology informed by Object-Oriented Ontology. 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It defines itself by its use, both in its physical presentation to readers and in its narrative structuring, which I describe as both “welcoming” and “friendly.” By illustrating how a shift from named entities (title, author) to physical affordances makes anonymous texts and their readers legible, this materials-first approach to Middle English devotional manuscripts suggests alternate ways to address the problematically unwieldy genre of the “devotional miscellany.”","Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2021-08-01","The student, Sara Weisweaver, accepted the attached license on 2019-06-05 at 15:16.","The student, Sara Weisweaver, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2019-06-05 at 15:20.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2019-06-10 at 11:52.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #13996 on 2019-11-26 at 13:00:58","Made available in DSpace on 2019-11-26T20:49:01Z (GMT). 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