In Miserere Mei; Clare Costley Kingoo examines the critical importance of the Penitential Psalms in England between the end of the fourteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century. During this period; the Penitential Psalms inspired an enormous amount of creative and intellectual work: in addition to being copied and illustrated in Books of Hours and other prayer books; they were expounded in commentaries; imitated in vernacular translations and paraphrases; rendered into lyric poetry; and even modified for singing. Miserere Mei explores these numerous transformations in materiality and genre. Combining the resources of close literary analysis with those of the history of the book; it reveals not only that the Penitential Psalms lay at the heart of Reformation-age debates over the nature of repentance; but also; and more significantly; that they constituted a site of theological; political; artistic; and poetic engagement across the many polarities that are often said to separate late medieval from early modern culture. Miserere Mei features twenty-five illustrations and provides new analyses of works based on the Penitential Psalms by several key writers of the time; including Richard Maidstone; Thomas Brampton; John Fisher; Martin Luther; Sir Thomas Wyatt; George Gascoigne; Sir John Harington; and Richard Verstegan. It will be of value to anyone interested in the interpretation; adaptation; and appropriation of biblical literature; the development of religious plurality in the West; the emergence of modernity; and the periodization of Western culture. Students and scholars in the fields of literature; religion; history; art history; and the history of material texts will find Miserere Mei particularly instructive and compelling.
2016-03-16 2016-03-16File Name: B01D2F59A0
Review