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Piers Plowman Electronic Archive

A collaborative, open-access project presenting the rich textual tradition of Piers Plowman.

Published onFeb 23, 2022
Piers Plowman Electronic Archive
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Description

Begun in 1991, the Piers Plowman Electronic Archive has been received by scholars of Middle English literature, textual criticism, and the digital humanities as a landmark project. The Piers Plowman Electronic Archive (PPEA), a collaborative open-access digital project, presents the rich textual tradition of Piers Plowman, a fourteenth-century allegorical dream vision attributed to William Langland. Three distinct versions of the poem survive in more than fifty manuscripts, along with four early printed editions – making Piers Plowman arguably the most textually complex work in the English canon. The PPEA aims to produce a public archive of the Piers Plowman tradition in a form that will answer a variety of scholarly demands, including access to transcriptions and images, documentary texts, and critical editions.

Piers Plowman Electronic Archive home page depicting circular logo comprising three light blue circles with white highlights, text logo, and explanatory text.

Piers Plowman Electronic Archive home page.

Piers Plowman Electronic Archive critical edition showing apparatus.

Piers Plowman Electronic Archive critical edition showing apparatus.

The Piers Plowman Electronic Archive represents the richness and complexity of the textual tradition of William Langland’s Piers Plowman, a fourteenth-century allegorical dream vision. The Archive provides unprecedented access to manuscript copies of the poem and at the same time generates critical editions that come closer than ever to the earliest texts of the poem, otherwise lost to the modern world.

Image depicts dreaming figure in in illustration accompanying text and decorated border in red and blue with white highlights and gold leaf.

Manuscript copy of Piers Plowman: Oxford, Corpus Christi College, MS 201, fol. 1r.

Image depicts capital letter I in red and blue ink and red and blue paragraph markers adjacent to text.

Manuscript copy of Piers Plowman: Huntington Library, Hm 128, fol. 113r.

Image depicts text in 16th-century cursive handwriting.

Manuscript copy of Piers Plowman: Cambridge University Library, MS Gg.4.31, fol. 1.

Image contains title of poem surrounded by printed frame with column border, image of sun at top, and putti at bottom.

Early printed copy of Piers Plowman: Crowley (Cr1) title page.

Project Creator or Project Team Name

Timothy Stinson: Timothy Stinson is Associate Professor of English North Carolina State University. He serves as co-director of the Piers Plowman Electronic Archive and director of the Society for Early English and Norse Electronic Texts (SEENET). His research interests include Middle English poetry, codicology, history of the book, and digital humanities.

Jim Knowles: Jim Knowles is Associate Teaching Professor of English at NC State University. He is the managing editor of the Piers Plowman Electronic Archive and executive secretary of the Society for Early English and Norse Electronic Texts (SEENET). His research interests include Middle English poetry and late medieval history and theology. 

Institutional affiliation/s

North Carolina State University

Years active

30 years

Keywords/Tags

Medieval studies; Manuscript studies; textual criticism; digital humanities

To learn more

Piers Plowman Electronic Archive

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