Chasing the Pearl-Manuscript - Speculation, Shapes, Delight

A unique study of the only physical manuscript containing Sir Gawain and the Green Knight as both a material and literary object. In this book, Arthur Bahr takes a fresh look at the four poems and twelve illustrations of the so-called -Pearl-Manuscript,- the only surviving medieval copy of two of the best-known Middle English poems: Pearl and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. In Chasing the Pearl-Manuscript, Bahr explores how the physical manuscript itself enhances our perception of the poetry, drawing on recent technological advances (such as spectroscopic analysis) to show the Pearl-Manuscript to be a more complex piece of material, visual, and textual art than previously understood. By connecting the manuscript-s construction to the intricate language in the texts, Bahr suggests new ways to understand both what poetry is and what poetry can do.