Graphic Practices and Literacies in the History of English

Matti Peikola, Jukka Tyrkko, Mari-Liisa Varila (eds). Pages: xv + 355 p.Illustrations:37 b/w, 12 col., 16 tables b/w. Language(s):English. Publication Year:2025. Brepols. ISBN: 978-2-503-60045-1. Hardback -- Summary Graphic devices such as tables and diagrams and other visual strategies of organising text and information are an essential part of communication. The use of these devices and strategies in books and documents developed throughout the medieval and early modern periods, as knowledge was translated and circulated in European vernaculars. Yet the use of graphic practices and multimodal literacies associated with them have mostly been examined in the context of Latin, Greek, Arabic, and Hebrew, and early vernacular writing remains an under-researched area. This volume brings together contributors from English historical linguistics and book studies to highlight multimodal graphic practices and literacies in texts across a range of genres and text types from the late medieval period until the eighteenth century. Contributions in the volume investigate both handwritten and printed materials, from books in the domains of medicine, religion, history, and grammar, to administrative records and letter writing. TABLE OF CONTENTS Graphic Practices in Early English Texts MATTI PEIKOLA, JUKKA TYRKKO, and MARI-LIISA VARILA Part I Conventionalising Strategies of Verbal and Visual information COLETTE MOORE The Pragmatics of Late Medieval English Accounts: A Case Study KJETIL V. THENGS Plague on the Page: Mise-en-page and Visual Highlighting in the John of Burgundy Plague Tract from the Fourteenth to the Seventeenth Century ALPO HONKAPOHJA The Pragmatics of Punctuation in Early English Medical Recipe Books JAVIER CALLE-MARTIN and JESUS ROMERO-BARRANCO 105 Visual Pragmatics and Late Modern English Letters INGRID TIEKEN-BOON VAN OSTADE Part II The A to Z of Middle English Indexing? The Tables of John Trevisa’s Polychronicon WENDY SCASE A Visual and Linguistic Interpretation of the Pater Noster Table of the Vernon Manuscript OLGA TIMOFEEVA Visual Chronologies in Early Modern English Historiography AINO LIIRA, MATTI PEIKOLA, and MARJO KAARTINEN 201 Visual Representation of Information in Medical Texts, 1500-1700 MARI-LIISA VARILA, CARLA SUHR, and JUKKA TYRKKO Verbal and Visual Instruction in Early Dance Manuals: The Curious Case of John Playford’s Tables HANNA SALMI Graphic Elements in Early Printed Grammar Books JANNE SKAFFARI and JUKKA TYRKKO Afterword JEREMY J. SMITH Bibliography Index Notes on Contributors.…