Congratulations to Professor Rachel Burns who has been awarded the Beatrice White Prize by the English Association for her publication A History of Old English Verse Layout: Poetics on the Page.
According to the English Association website, the Beatrice White Prize is awarded to the best scholarly article in the journal The Year’s Work in English Studies (YWES) in the fields of English Literature before 1590.
The judges commented: "Teachers of Old English literature routinely tell their students that vernacular verse was written out on the manuscript page ‘as if it were prose’ on account of the scarcity of valuable parchment. Rachel A. Burns' groundbreaking monograph, A History of Old English Verse Layout: Poetics on the Page, forces us to rethink these long-held assumptions by demonstrating how scribes familiar with the copying of Latin poetry in verse lines experimented with different ways of presenting vernacular poetry to their readers. In a series of forensic case studies, Burns shows how early attempts at lineation were abandoned due to the irregular length of the Old English poetic line. The emergence of relatively standardised presentation of Old English verse on the manuscript page by the tenth century is found to be the result of a series of intelligent scribal choices rather than a purely pragmatic measure. Poetics on the Page will be essential reading for all students of Old English verse and early medieval manuscripts."
Visit the English Association website to find out more.
