Sir Cleges: a Text Study and a Digital Scholarly Edition

This master’s thesis was aimed at analyzing the content and manuscript tradition of the Middle English poem Sir Cleges and creating a diplomatic-interpretative digital edition of one of its witnesses. Although edited several times, Sir Cleges lacked a faithful diplomatic transcription and was mostly treated with regard to the limitations posed by the paper-oriented editorial approach. This edition was based on Bodleian Library MS. Ashmole 61 and followed the digital paradigm to overcome these boundaries. The encoding produced in XML format consisted of two layers: a diplomatic transcription, which preserved all relevant original features of the manuscript, and an interpretative level with a normalized layout. Oxygen XML Editor was implemented for the encoding, and the visualization of the output was performed via EVT 2 and Visual Studio Code. The textual data were supplied with electronic facsimile, preserved at Digital Bodleian. The chosen approach allowed for a close study of the scribal manner of the witness, and the benefits of the digital format facilitated further investigations concerned both with the original text and its interpretation. Supported by an extensive literature review, this research contributed to Middle English literary studies, while enriching the database of digitally edited manuscripts, which is crucial for their preservation and accessibility.