Language Change, Writing and Textual Interference in Post-Conquest Old English Manuscripts: The Evidence of Cambridge University Library, Ii. 1. 33. by Oliver M. Traxel. MÙnchener Universit¹tsschriften, Texte und Untersuchungen zur Englischen Philologie, 32. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2004. Pp. 268; 13 plates. $50.95.

In this revision of his 2000 doctoral dissertation for the University of Cambridge, Oliver M. Traxel presents the results of his study of Cambridge University Library MS Ii 1. 33, a compilation of religious prose primarily written by Ælfric, copied during the second half of the twelfth century. Although the texts are in Old English, additions and alterations in Old English, Middle English, Anglo-Norman, and Latin appear sporadically between the lines and in the margins. Because it is one of relatively few late Old English manuscripts as well as an important witness to Ælfric's Lives of Saints, CUL Ii. 1. 33 has attracted interest from editors of Ælfrician materials over the years as well as from scholars working on the anonymous Address of the Soul to the Body (Cameron b. 3. 5. 8), Instructions for Christians (Cameron A. 44), and the Old English translation of Alcuin's De virtutibus et vitiis, chapters 1Æ13 (Cameron b. 9. 7). William Schipper published two important studies of the manuscript in the 1980s, but of late it has received increased attention as interest has grown in post-Conquest collections of Old English religious materials. The work of Elaine Treharne, Donald Scragg, Mary Swan, Jonathan Wilcox, and Susan Irvine in particular has highlighted both the significance and the complexity of these compilations.

Mary P. Richards
University of Delaware