Piers Plowman: A Facsimile of Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS Douce 104

William Langland's Piers Plowmanis one of the most important poems of the English Middle Ages. It is also a poem that gains in an exceptional way from the study of its manuscript sources, and it has played a vital part in debates about textual criticism and editing. The copy of Piers Plowmanwhich forms the only contents of Bodleian Library MS Douce 104 is a version of the C-Text, and has its part to play in the debate. The present facsimileis the first of either of the two longer versions of the poem to appear for over fifty years. Douce 104 has a unique and more particular claim on our attention. It contains 72 marginal illustrations which provide a record of the response to the poem of an early fifteenth-century reader of exceptional intelligence and literary understanding - a wonderful opportunity to examine an authentic near-contemporary reaction to one of the greatest poems of the English middle ages.DEREK PEARSALLis Guiney Professor of English at Harvard University. KATHLEEN SCOTTteaches at Michigan State University.