Reading in the Wilderness
Private Devotion and Public Performance in Late Medieval England
- Contents
- Review Quotes
- Awards

List of Abbreviations
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction: The Performance of Reading
2. “Silence Visible”: Carthusian Devotional Reading and Meditative Practice
Backgrounds: The Carthusian Order
Carthusians and Books
Carthusians and Art
3. The Shapes of Eremitic Reading in the Desert of Religion
The Desert of Religion as Imagetext
“Als Wildernes Is Wroght þis Boke”: Formats of Monastic Books
Reading Spiritual Community in the Wilderness
4. Lyric Imaginings and Painted Prayers
The Eremitic Lyric and Richard Rolle
Imagining the Carthusian Reader
5. Liturgical Pageantry in Private Spaces
Reading the Liturgy: Two Models
Performing the Holy Name
Performing the Canonical Hours
Performing the Seven Sacraments
6. Envisioning Dialogue in Performance
“In Maner of a Dyaloge It Wente”
Allegorical Dialogues: The Pylgremage of the Sowle
Mystical Dialogues: The Tretyse of þe Seven Poyntes of Trewe Love and Everlastynge Wisdame
7. Dramatizing the Cell: Theatrical Performances in Monastic Reading
Dramatic Texts, Lyric Voices, and Private Readers
Theatrical Reading in Additional 3749
Monastic Closet Drama
8. Conclusion: Reading Performances
Notes
Bibliography
Index
“At long last—an in-depth study of the Carthusian Miscellany! Instead of mining the surface of this fascinating manuscript for the occasional visual nugget to illustrate late medieval devotional practices, Jessica Brantley digs deep to illuminate the manuscript itself, significantly extending previous work by art historians, Middle English editors, and students of fifteenth-century religion by focusing on its performative nature and highlighting its theatricality.”
“Jessica Brantley persuasively describes a prevalent medieval practice of performative private reading. Moving beyond previous theories of reception, she analyzes manuscript illustrations as action-seeking cues to the devout or meditative reader. Finding apparently solitary reading experience ’quickened’ at every point by its relation to public and communal experience, she stages a vigorous challenge to simplified notions of individuality and community in the later middle ages.”
“In the context of the study of this odd and oddly compelling manuscript Brantley’s reading is interesting and provocative.”
Conference on Christianity and Literature/MLA: CCL Book-of-the-Year Award
Won
Art: British Art
History: European History
Literature and Literary Criticism: British and Irish Literature
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