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Essays by Sarah Noonan

Manuscript Studies, 2023

This article, co-written with Anne Ryckbost, provides an overview of the pre-1600 manuscript hold... more This article, co-written with Anne Ryckbost, provides an overview of the pre-1600 manuscript holding of Xavier University and offers brief descriptions of the binding fragments held in their collection, none of which has been the focus of previous research.

Medieval Literary Voices: A Festschrift for David Lawton, 2022

This essay argues that the differences of punctuation across manuscript copies of a single work d... more This essay argues that the differences of punctuation across manuscript copies of a single work demonstrate that such marks were not viewed as being exclusively authorially determined but, instead, as being within the sphere of control of future scribes and audiences. If authors created the content of a work, then scribes and readers gave form to that content through how they performed and gave voice to it through punctuation – a situation that emphasises the inherent multivocality of medieval works, since an author’s text was rarely encountered by contemporary readers absent scribal and/ or oral mediation. The manuscripts of St Anselm of Canterbury’s Orationes sive Meditationes and William of Waddington’s Manuel des péchés illustrate the relative freedom with which medieval scribes treated punctuation that was inserted purposefully by the author. In the respective prologues to these works, both authors explicitly instruct audiences in how to use the paraph mark while reading. Subsequent copies, however, demonstrate a conspicuous variability in terms of if, and where, paraph marks are included within these texts, indicating that, even in situations when authors attempted to control the punctuation of their works, those marks could be redefined and performed flexibly by scribes with each recopying.

Teaching the History of the English Language, edited by Colette Moore and Chris C. Palmer, The Modern Language Association of America, 2019

Saint Anselm of Canterbury’s Orationes sive meditationes, written in the late-eleventh century, i... more Saint Anselm of Canterbury’s Orationes sive meditationes, written in the late-eleventh century, influenced generations of later authors of devotional and mystical literature, and the prologue to the Orationes, in particular, was repeatedly translated and reworked by vernacular authors in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in England. This essay examines the textual and codicological contexts in which this prologue occurs in four late-medieval manuscripts, and situates Anselm’s prologue within broader theoretical conversations regarding the respective values of indexical and affective modes of reading. Although selective modes of reading are at times perceived as being less sophisticated than those that engage with written works more comprehensively, the late-medieval interest in translations of Anselm’s prologue indicates that reading selectively could be seen as a sophisticated method for engaging the reader’s emotions so as to propel him or her towards a more devout and pious lifestyle.

In British Library, Additional MS 5465 (ca. 1500), also known as the Fayrfax Manuscript, a copy o... more In British Library, Additional MS 5465 (ca. 1500), also known as the Fayrfax Manuscript, a copy of the Short Charter of Christ is put to music in a song-book that was possibly written by or under the direction of Robert Fayrfax (1464–1521). While recent studies have examined the Short Charter’s materiality and its metaphorical imitation of legal documents, this essay contends that the musical setting of the Fayrfax copy illustrates the surprisingly wide range of devotional interest and degree of formal reinterpretation this work could inspire as it circulated in manuscript form. The musicality of the Fayrfax copy would have redefined the materiality of this documentarily-inspired work for early modern performers and audience members, offering them the opportunity to witness the creation of Christ’s charter not just as a visually effective but also as an aurally verifiable and devotionally affective performance guaranteeing mankind’s salvation.

Book Reviews by Sarah Noonan

Conference CFP by Sarah Noonan

 Medieval perspectives of futurity within religious and literary contexts, including interrogati... more  Medieval perspectives of futurity within religious and literary contexts, including interrogations of prophecy and eschatology;  The ways in which medieval individuals or regions planned for the future (i.e. urban design, military strategy, crusade proposals, logistics, economic sustainability, etc.);  Conceptions of time/periodization within Middle Ages-or how modern conception of time/periodization influence current pedagogical approaches to teaching medieval works;  Initiatives to preserve and make accessible archival materials and manuscripts for future readers;  Challenges to / opportunities for the future of the field of medieval studies, including: public forms of scholarship, digital humanities initiatives, efforts to increase inclusivity, confronting racist appropriations of medieval topics, etc.

Dissertation by Sarah Noonan

In a diverse range of late-fourteenth-and fifteenth-century devotional literature, Christ's body ... more In a diverse range of late-fourteenth-and fifteenth-century devotional literature, Christ's body is metaphorically related to a book or a document at the moment of his crucifixion. His skin transforms into parchment, whips and scourges become pens, and a steady flow of blood, of ink, covers his body and the written page. And each word written onto his parchment body welcomes sustained study, acting as a potential meditative focal point for the devout reader. Through this metaphor and the accompanying materiality of the texts that include it, medieval authors and audiences could imagine intimately interacting with Christ's body during the violence of his Passion. They could touch it, see it, hear it as it was read aloud, and, in the case of scribes, write it. This dissertation explores how the object of the text allowed audiences to participate actively in the events of Christ's Passion and considers how the affective engagement with Christ's suffering body that pervaded late-medieval devotional practice informed, in turn, the signifying power of a text's materiality.

Papers by Sarah Noonan

This collection features pedagogical artifacts created by the participants of the 2018-2019 NEH I... more This collection features pedagogical artifacts created by the participants of the 2018-2019 NEH Institute for Advanced Topics in the Digital Humanities, "Textual Data and Digital Texts in the Undergraduate Classroom." The artifacts--assignments, syllabi, sample student work, rubrics, workshops, and more--are grouped thematically in four sections: digital exhibits and narratives, textual analysis, distant reading and data visualization, and data-driven research. Each artifact begins with an overview in which the creator summarizes the artifact type, the intended audience, the time required, and the DH method and tool used, and provides a brief description of the artifact.

Manuscript Studies, 2023

This article, co-written with Anne Ryckbost, provides an overview of the pre-1600 manuscript hold... more This article, co-written with Anne Ryckbost, provides an overview of the pre-1600 manuscript holding of Xavier University and offers brief descriptions of the binding fragments held in their collection, none of which has been the focus of previous research.

Medieval Literary Voices: A Festschrift for David Lawton, 2022

This essay argues that the differences of punctuation across manuscript copies of a single work d... more This essay argues that the differences of punctuation across manuscript copies of a single work demonstrate that such marks were not viewed as being exclusively authorially determined but, instead, as being within the sphere of control of future scribes and audiences. If authors created the content of a work, then scribes and readers gave form to that content through how they performed and gave voice to it through punctuation – a situation that emphasises the inherent multivocality of medieval works, since an author’s text was rarely encountered by contemporary readers absent scribal and/ or oral mediation. The manuscripts of St Anselm of Canterbury’s Orationes sive Meditationes and William of Waddington’s Manuel des péchés illustrate the relative freedom with which medieval scribes treated punctuation that was inserted purposefully by the author. In the respective prologues to these works, both authors explicitly instruct audiences in how to use the paraph mark while reading. Subsequent copies, however, demonstrate a conspicuous variability in terms of if, and where, paraph marks are included within these texts, indicating that, even in situations when authors attempted to control the punctuation of their works, those marks could be redefined and performed flexibly by scribes with each recopying.

Teaching the History of the English Language, edited by Colette Moore and Chris C. Palmer, The Modern Language Association of America, 2019

Saint Anselm of Canterbury’s Orationes sive meditationes, written in the late-eleventh century, i... more Saint Anselm of Canterbury’s Orationes sive meditationes, written in the late-eleventh century, influenced generations of later authors of devotional and mystical literature, and the prologue to the Orationes, in particular, was repeatedly translated and reworked by vernacular authors in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in England. This essay examines the textual and codicological contexts in which this prologue occurs in four late-medieval manuscripts, and situates Anselm’s prologue within broader theoretical conversations regarding the respective values of indexical and affective modes of reading. Although selective modes of reading are at times perceived as being less sophisticated than those that engage with written works more comprehensively, the late-medieval interest in translations of Anselm’s prologue indicates that reading selectively could be seen as a sophisticated method for engaging the reader’s emotions so as to propel him or her towards a more devout and pious lifestyle.

In British Library, Additional MS 5465 (ca. 1500), also known as the Fayrfax Manuscript, a copy o... more In British Library, Additional MS 5465 (ca. 1500), also known as the Fayrfax Manuscript, a copy of the Short Charter of Christ is put to music in a song-book that was possibly written by or under the direction of Robert Fayrfax (1464–1521). While recent studies have examined the Short Charter’s materiality and its metaphorical imitation of legal documents, this essay contends that the musical setting of the Fayrfax copy illustrates the surprisingly wide range of devotional interest and degree of formal reinterpretation this work could inspire as it circulated in manuscript form. The musicality of the Fayrfax copy would have redefined the materiality of this documentarily-inspired work for early modern performers and audience members, offering them the opportunity to witness the creation of Christ’s charter not just as a visually effective but also as an aurally verifiable and devotionally affective performance guaranteeing mankind’s salvation.

 Medieval perspectives of futurity within religious and literary contexts, including interrogati... more  Medieval perspectives of futurity within religious and literary contexts, including interrogations of prophecy and eschatology;  The ways in which medieval individuals or regions planned for the future (i.e. urban design, military strategy, crusade proposals, logistics, economic sustainability, etc.);  Conceptions of time/periodization within Middle Ages-or how modern conception of time/periodization influence current pedagogical approaches to teaching medieval works;  Initiatives to preserve and make accessible archival materials and manuscripts for future readers;  Challenges to / opportunities for the future of the field of medieval studies, including: public forms of scholarship, digital humanities initiatives, efforts to increase inclusivity, confronting racist appropriations of medieval topics, etc.

In a diverse range of late-fourteenth-and fifteenth-century devotional literature, Christ's body ... more In a diverse range of late-fourteenth-and fifteenth-century devotional literature, Christ's body is metaphorically related to a book or a document at the moment of his crucifixion. His skin transforms into parchment, whips and scourges become pens, and a steady flow of blood, of ink, covers his body and the written page. And each word written onto his parchment body welcomes sustained study, acting as a potential meditative focal point for the devout reader. Through this metaphor and the accompanying materiality of the texts that include it, medieval authors and audiences could imagine intimately interacting with Christ's body during the violence of his Passion. They could touch it, see it, hear it as it was read aloud, and, in the case of scribes, write it. This dissertation explores how the object of the text allowed audiences to participate actively in the events of Christ's Passion and considers how the affective engagement with Christ's suffering body that pervaded late-medieval devotional practice informed, in turn, the signifying power of a text's materiality.

This collection features pedagogical artifacts created by the participants of the 2018-2019 NEH I... more This collection features pedagogical artifacts created by the participants of the 2018-2019 NEH Institute for Advanced Topics in the Digital Humanities, "Textual Data and Digital Texts in the Undergraduate Classroom." The artifacts--assignments, syllabi, sample student work, rubrics, workshops, and more--are grouped thematically in four sections: digital exhibits and narratives, textual analysis, distant reading and data visualization, and data-driven research. Each artifact begins with an overview in which the creator summarizes the artifact type, the intended audience, the time required, and the DH method and tool used, and provides a brief description of the artifact.