{"id":12596,"date":"2020-03-22T01:39:13","date_gmt":"2020-03-22T01:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/?page_id=12596"},"modified":"2020-11-23T01:40:40","modified_gmt":"2020-11-23T01:40:40","slug":"ensley-2020-congress","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/abstracts\/ensley-2020-congress\/","title":{"rendered":"Ensley (2020 Congress)"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Eric Ensley<\/strong>
\n(English Department, Yale University<\/em>)<\/h2>\n

“A<\/strong>ntiquity Revisited:\u00a0 Ancient Gems in Medieval English Seals”<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Abstract of Paper
\nIntended<\/em><\/span> To be presented at the 55th International Congress on Medieval Studies [CANCELLED]<\/span>
\n(Kalamazoo, 2020)<\/h3>\n

Rescheduled<\/span> for the 56th International Congress on Medieval Studies
\n(Kalamazoo, 2021)<\/h3>\n

Session I of II on
\n\u201cSeal the Real:\u00a0 Documentary Records, Seals, and Authentications”
\nPart I:\u00a0 “Signed & Sealed\u201d<\/h4>\n

Sponsored by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence<\/strong>
\nOrganized by Mildred Budny
\n2020 Congress Program<\/a>
\n2021 Congress Program Planning<\/a><\/h4>\n

[Published on 10 March 2020, with an Update on 17 March 2020 reporting the Cancellation of the Congress as a whole,
\nand with an Update on 19 November reporting the Rescheduling for the 2021 Congress<\/em>]<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

Abstract<\/h4>\n

Recent scholarly attention has labeled the early 15th-century English poet Thomas Hoccleve (1368\u20131426)<\/span> many things:\u00a0 bureaucrat, poet, propagandist, \u201cnobody\u2019s man,\u201d1<\/sup><\/span> imitator, and materialist, among numerous others.\u00a0 It seems each time Hoccleve is labeled one of these, the other labels, all accurate to some degree at various points in the poet\u2019s life, seem to fall out of focus.\u00a0 In this paper, drawn from my dissertation research and drawing upon several of the previous labels, I follow in the path of Ethan Knapp\u2019s Bureaucratic Muse<\/em> (2001) and a recent article on Hoccleve\u2019s poetic materialism by Taylor Cowdery (2016) to suggest that one of the material and bureaucratic touchstones for the poet in his Regiment of Princes<\/em> was not just the idea of bureaucracy but the day-to-day operations of his place of work, the Office of the Privy Seal.\u00a0 The Office had as its core function the validation and authorization of documents and letters originating from the royal household and destined for the Chancery, Exchequer, foreign courts, and English institutions. The main means of verifying documents through the Office was via the seal \u2014 particularly the privy seal but, as I will discuss in my paper, the Great Seal of the Realm, and the signet seal were frequently noted in documents.<\/p>\n

Though the title of this panel is \u201cSeal the Real,\u201d my paper suggests that Hoccleve had doubts about the efficacy of seals to promise the real \u2014 that is authorization, presence, and legitimacy; this is a concern perhaps supported by trouble with forged or misused seals and momentous changes in seal design during the period when Hoccleve wrote the Regiment of Princes<\/em>. In sum, this paper draws upon numerous material and poetic sources \u2014 Hoccleve\u2019s own holograph Formulary<\/em>, seal design, textual evidence from the Regiment<\/em>, and ars dictaminis<\/em> manuals \u2014 to speak to ongoing debates about Hoccleve\u2019s role and the role of bureaucracy in late medieval poetics.<\/p>\n

_______<\/p>\n

1<\/sup><\/span> James Simpson\u2019s term from a 1995 essay, \u201cNobody\u2019s Man.\u201d<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

We thank Eric for his continuing contributions to our Congress Sessions.<\/p>\n

See the Abstract for his joint Paper at the 2019 Congress<\/a>.<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

James Eric Ensley (English Department, Yale University) “Antiquity Revisited:\u00a0 Ancient Gems in Medieval English Seals” Abstract of Paper Intended To be presented at the 55th International Congress on Medieval Studies [CANCELLED] (Kalamazoo, 2020) Rescheduled for the 56th International Congress on Medieval Studies (Kalamazoo, 2021) Session I of II on \u201cSeal the Real:\u00a0 Documentary Records, Seals, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":1023,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12596"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12596"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14514,"href":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12596\/revisions\/14514"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}