Findern Manuscript

Abstract

An anthology of Middle English verse compiled during the second half of the fifteenth century, the Findern Manuscript (Cambridge, Cambridge University Library, MS Ff.1.6) encloses 62 texts, including well‐known pieces by Chaucer, Gower, Hoccleve, Lydgate, and Clanvowe, as well as 29 unique anonymous lyrics. Studies of Findern fall into four periods: the earliest focused on its contents, codicological features, and circumstances of production; the next on the possibility that a number of its anonymous lyrics were composed by women; the next on the manuscript as a site of poetic innovation through imitation. Most recently, Findern has been studied as a resource for understanding the unique concerns of members of the gentry class in the second half of the fifteenth century.