Talk and Textual Production in Medieval England by Marisa Libbon (review)

Reviewed by: Talk and Textual Production in Medieval England by Marisa Libbon Alexandra Claridge Talk and Textual Production in Medieval England. By Marisa Libbon. (Interventions: New Studies in Medieval Culture) Columbus: Ohio State University Press. 2021. xviii+245 pp. 99. 95. ISBN 978–0–8142–1470–1. Marisa Libbon's monograph offers both a detailed study of a specific topic and an innovative approach to a whole field. The subject is Richard Cœur de Lion, the mythologized Richard I, hero of medieval Romance, but the wider study offers an examination of the role of talk in shaping medieval texts. Richard Cœur de Lion forms the supporting case study in the argument that surviving medieval texts were the product of the talk which surrounded their production. End Page 257 The Introduction sets out the case for exploring medieval talk. It situates the study within the 'sonic turn' of scholarship and discusses ideas of the orality and aurality surrounding texts. Libbon proposes a further theoretical step by viewing talk as a fundamental part of textual production which is 'not wholly ephemeral' but can be accessed through close examination of surviving texts (p. 6). The Introduction also justifies choosing Richard Cœur de Lion as a case study on the basis that Richard I's absence from England generated rumours which grew and became significant for English identity following his death. Each of the five chapters uses surviving sets of texts to show how talk shaped the story of Richard Cœur de Lion. In the first chapter, nineteenth-century literary history destabilizes the idea of a single Richard Cœur de Lion. Attitudes to Richard, including those of George Ellis and Walter Scott, introduce the impact of talk on 'editorial methodology'. The bulk of the first chapter examines the stories circulating in nineteenth-century Vienna, which shaped Karl Brunner's Richard Löwenherz. The remaining chapters are in rough chronological order. Chapter 2examines thirteenth-century legal records, including statutes of quo warranto and eyre visitations, where there was an 'active project' to use stories of Richard to influence present legal concerns. Libbon terms this 'retrospective inheritance' (p. 82). The chapter illustrates that stories circulating about Richard had cultural and legal significance before the earliest surviving romances. Chapter 3 uses illustrations in Christ Church, Oxford, MS 92 (c. 1326) to show how Richard myths resonated with anxieties about kingship and conquest at the start of Edward III's reign. The final two chapters turn to Richard Cœur de Lion in Romance. The fourth chapter shows that Richard Cœur de Lion in the Auckinleck manuscript drew on stories of other heroes, such as Charlemagne and Roland, to curate cultural memories of England's past. Chapter 5 argues that Richard Cœur de Lion was a 'modular' narrative through a comparison of the Auckinleck version against other manuscripts containing stories about Richard. The fragment existing in Auckinleck, including stories about Messina, Cyprus, and the Siege of Acre, was the 'core rumour', to which other stories could be added. The book ends with a short Conclusion, emphasizing the disruptive and innovative possibilities of scholarly interest in medieval talk. This book is best read with sustained focus from cover to cover. Arguments in later chapters rely on knowledge imparted in earlier sections. However, reading is well rewarded. Libbon's task of unpicking a historical game of telephone, stretching back eight hundred years, is admirably ambitious and bears fruit. For scholars interested in Richard Cœur de Lion, the book offers an essential account of its history in and beyond the written record. For those interested in medieval texts, it models a methodology for accessing the historical spoken word. Through detailed observation of images, examination of differences between manuscripts, and a willingness to engage with legal material not often used by literary historians, Libbon shows how talk circulating around texts can be reconstructed. Such an approach to textual studies has wide-reaching implications. Placing people who talk on equal footing with those who write offers an intriguing avenue into histories of those forgotten or End Page 258 marginalized by conventionally understood processes of textual production. After reading this book, scholars will emerge. . .