Minnis, A. J.
A. J. Minnis, ed. Chaucer's "Boece" and the Medieval Tradition of Boethius (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1993), pp. 83-166.
Surveys scholarly discussion of Chaucer's sources for his extrapolatory glosses in Bo, arguing that he was indebted to "some version of the Remigian glosses," to Jean de Meun's "livres de confort," and to a complete version of Nicholas Trevet's…
Minnis, A. J.
Roy Eriksen, ed. Contexts of the Pre-Novel Narrative: The European Tradition (Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1994), pp. 153-83.
Chaucer's adjustments of his source materials in LGW produce narratives in which "Marriage, whether secured or desired, motivates and ennobles all the deaths for love." Experimenting with creating archetypically false men, Chaucer idealizes female…
Minnis, A. J.
Proceedings of the British Academy 72 (1986): 205-46.
Discusses whether Chaucer is a medieval or a Renaissance poet, examining Chaucer's attitudes toward his world and the process by which Chaucer was inspired.
Minnis, A. J.
P. R. Robinson and Rivkah Zim, eds. Of the Making of Books: Medieval Manuscripts, Their Scribes and Readers. Essays Presented to M. B. Parkes (Aldershot, Hants: Scolar Press; Brookfield, Vt.: Ashgate, 1997), pp. 259-79.
Explores the "complicated medieval matrix of ideas concerning the relationship between authority and fallibility," commenting on representations of the topic from Petrarch's depiction of Cicero to Chaucer's depiction of the Pardoner. As a preacher…
Minnis, A. J.
A. J. Minnis, Charlotte C. Morse, and Thorlac Turville-Petre, eds. Essays on Ricardian Literature: In Honour of J. A. Burrow (Oxford: Clarendon, 1997), 142-78.
Belief in the salvation of virtuous pagans (the "'facere quod in est' principle") has been associated with nominalist thought. Minnis examines Chaucer's praise of Cambuyskan in SqT to argue that there is no real evidence of nominalist influence on…
Minnis, A. J.
A. J. Minnis. Magister Amoris: The Roman de la Rose and Vernacular Hermeneutics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), pp. 119-63.
Explores Jean de Meun's treatment of vulgar talk in "Roman de la Rose" (lines 15,129-272) within the context of late-medieval theories of signification. In various passages of CT, Chaucer also confronts direct language and low subject in literature.…
Minnis, A. J.
Marianne Børch, ed. Text and Voice: The Rhetoric of Authority in the Middle Ages (Odense : University Press of Southern Denmark, 2004), pp. 138-67.
Considers the lack of extensive glosses and commentaries on late Middle English literature, including Chaucer, arguing that in England, unlike on the Continent, the concern with "translatio studii" (transferring the authority of the ancients to the…
Minnis, A. J.
Phillip Lindley and Thomas Frangenberg, eds. Secular Sculpture: 1300-1550 (Stamford: Shaun Tyas), 2000, pp. 124-43.
Minnis considers possible sources or inspirations for Chaucer's techniques of describing the architecture and statuary in the Temple of Venus of HF, surveying previous scholarship. Despite the possible influence of actual art and architecture or the…
Minnis, A. J., and Charlotte Brewer, eds.
Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1992.
Eight essays by different authors explore textual issues in light of recent developments in textual theory, thus questioning traditional notions of authors, texts, readers, and kinds of revision. For individual essays that pertain to Chaucer, search…
Minnis, A. J., and Tim William Machan.
A. J. Minnis, ed. Chaucer's "Boece" and the Medieval Tradition of Boethius (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1993), pp. 167-88.
Assesses Bo and its fifteenth-century reception in light of the "well-defined and distinctive" tradition of "academic translation," i.e., as a reflection of the late-medieval interest in semiotics and textual explication. Although Chaucer never…
Four essays and two appendices place Bo in the "tradition of the academic study and translation of the 'Consolatio,'" clarifying the relative importance of such predecessors as William of Conches, Jean de Meun, anonymous commentators, and especially…
Sixteen essays from the Eighth York Manuscript Conference (July 5-7, 1996) on issues in Middle English textual studies: dating, punctuation, meter, scribal practice, and book production, among others. Includes a preface (xi-xii) that celebrates…
Minnis, A. J.,and A. B. Scott,
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988.
Treats "the tradition of systematic commentary on authors both sacred and profane, Latin and vernacular, 'ancient' and 'modern,' from around 1100 until around 1375." Selections are descriptive, evaluative, and critical.
Minnis, A. J.,Charlotte C. Morse, and Thorlac Turville-Petre,eds.
Sixteen essays by various authors on Anglo-French, Latin, and (especially) English literature produced during the reign of Richard II. Includes bibliography of Burrow's publications. For eleven essays that pertain to Chaucer, search for Essays on…
Minnis, Alastair J.
Machan, Tim William,
New Medieval Literatures 23 (2023): 130-78.
Challenges the "dominant paradigm" for the date and composition of Bo, dismantling "several doubtful propositions"--influence on Usk's "Testament," Chaucer's use of Bo in his other works, Chaucer as a "poor Latinist." Analyzes Bo as a "late-medieval…
Minnis surveys depictions of ambiguous pagan oracles in medieval literature, including Calchas's foreknowledge in TC and the temple scenes in KnT, arguing that Chaucer and other medieval poets held that pagans as well as Christians had the ability…
Minnis, Alastair J.
Masahiko Kanno and others, eds. Medieval Heritage: Essays in Honour of Tadahiro Ikegami (Tokyo: Yushodo, 1997), pp. 31-63.
Demonstrates that Chaucer's "discourse of words and deeds" in GP and his apology for language in MilP are "heavily indebted" to Jean de Meun's comments on language in "Roman de la Rose," tracing lines of influence and emphasis from Jean's sources…
Minnis, Alastair, and Eric J. Johnson.
Jocelyn Wogan-Browne et al., eds. Medieval Women: Texts and Contexts in Late Medieval Britain: Essays for Felicity Riddy (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2000), pp. 199-216.
Assesses Criseyde's fearfulness in the context of "late-medieval accounts of the psychology and ethics of fear," arguing that Chaucer presents her not as a "culpably fickle female" but as an (equally essentialized) "attractively fearful female."
Minnis, Alastair, and Ian Johnson, eds.
New York: Cambridge University Press,2005.
A capacious survey of critical theory and application in medieval letters, with twenty-seven essays by various authors, arranged in seven sections: the liberal arts and Latin textuality, the study of classical authors, textual psychologies,…
Minnis, Alastair.
REALB: The Yearbook of Research in English and American Literature (Tubingen) 12 (1996): 203-21
Assesses differing opinions of female preaching and teaching in medieval orthodoxy and in the Lollard movement, arguing that Chaucer's depiction of the Wife of Bath and the loathly lady in WBT confronts these opinions. Just as PardT confronts…
Noting the heritage of critical commentary about the Pardoner's sexuality, Minnis calls for refocusing attention on the central issue: the Pardoner's immorality. The Pardoner, probably a lay person, is placed within the context of medieval indulgence…
Minnis, Alastair.
New Medieval Literatures 6 (2003): 107-28.
Argues against specifying the Pardoner's sexuality, on the grounds that historical evidence discourages such specification and that specification can only render the character less enigmatic and thereby less queer. Sexual characteristics ascribed to…
Minnis, Alastair.
Essays in Criticism 55 (2005): 97-116
The Loathly Lady's lecture on "gentilesse" in WBT goes beyond sexual sovereignty to encompass dominium, a concept central to Wyclif's challenge to authority. Without naming his source, Chaucer channels orthodox, Boethian ideas about "gentilesse"…
