Heard amongst the jury presentments and indictments made at Lincoln before the local justices of oyer and terminer in 1355 was the tragic case of Agnes, daughter of John de Cloworth, aged eight, who it was said was raped by Hugh de Outhorp, local bailiff's sergeant, in the same city almost a decade previously. According to the jury, on an undetermined date between Michaelmas 1345 and Michaelmas 1346, Hugh entered into the chamber of Agnes at night where, upon waking her, he ‘tried to contaminate and deflower her’ (eam contaminare et deflorare conavit). Due to her youth and immaturity (minoritatem et teneritatem), however, Hugh could not penetrate her, so he ‘cruelly cut her with a knife, and wounded her, and having cut her open in this way … violated and ravished her against her will and against the peace so that it was despaired of the life of the said Agnes’. Afterwards (postmodum) – the length of time is not specified – Agnes's mother, Johanna, carried her to the guildhall and raising the hue and cry presented her, ‘contaminated, ravished and wounded in this way as if she were some horrible monster’ (contaminatam defloratam et vulneratam et quasi quoddam orribile monstrum), to the incumbent mayor, Robert de Chesterfeld, and the city's two acting bailiffs, John de Bryggeforth and, most significantly of all, John de Outhorp, brother of the accused.

Upon hearing the account of Johanna and viewing firsthand the injured body of Agnes, the mayor ordered the bailiffs to arrest Hugh, confiscate his mace (clavam suam) and commit him to prison. This John de Outhorp refused to do, asserting ‘openly and publicly before the mayor in full court that he wished to maintain and warrant the aforesaid Hugh, his brother, in his office against the aforesaid woman and against all men’ before handing ‘back his mace to the same Hugh’. Moreover, wishing not to ‘hear the claims and pleadings of the aforesaid Agnes, [he] … refused to do justice to her in this matter, and … chased the same Agnes and her mother from the same hall and put them in very great (maximam) fear’.

Having explored Unterweisung principles within Hindemith's music, we may observe that works written from his Berlin appointment (1927) onwards tend towards a greater conservatism. In the main, they use fewer and more standardised performance and expression markings, contain more regular and explicit quartal pitch collections, and are constructed with clearer compositional strategies and pre-conceived formal structures. These features may be further highlighted through comparison of his eclectic earlier style and post-1927 compositions, and in the revisions to his music written before, and yet revised after, the Unterweisung.

Such techniques are not wholly absent from Hindemith's early music, however. Even in his most dissonant and anti-structuralistic works, such as the Sonata for Solo Viola op. 25/1, Hindemith shows a concern for voiceleading. There are also explicit quartal pitch collections to be found, although they feature less prominently than in his post-theory works. Hindemith's early music, while highly abstract, liberal and instinctive, still contained traces of thought that could become the subject of theory. One could therefore suggest that his early style lent itself well to theoretical refinement.

One area of his early style that was almost entirely jettisoned after the Unterweisung was the octatonic scale. I find it surprising that Hindemith's use of this scale has not been fully investigated, given the interest it has generated in relation to the music of other leading composers such as Stravinsky and Bartók. Unlike Stravinsky, however, Hindemith does not draw upon a national heritage for the modes of his composition; rather, the presence of the octatonic scale in his early music is but one facet of his pluralistic borrowings.

Hindemith's emphasis on quartal pitch collections relates to prolongational characteristics that are neither tonal nor atonal, and which defy conventional categorisation. These prolongations are also implicitly referred to in the Unterweisung, particularly within the graphic analyses. Furthermore, Hindemith's quartal pitch collections, which are fully invertible, allowed him to perform the myriad of contrapuntal operations in the Ludus Tonalis. The potential of these collections may be related to his growing fondness for writing musical canons from the 1940s onwards; he wrote only one canon before the Unterweisung.

ONE of the most important manuscript witnesses to polyphonic music in the Middle Ages resides in the library of Montpellier's historic medical school. The so-called Montpellier codex (Bibliothèque interuniversitaire, Bibliothèque universitaire de médecine, H. 196, hereafter Mo) is modest in dimensions, but it contains the largest medieval motet collection in existence, and is packed with gorgeous gold-leaf illuminations, historiated initials, decorative borders, and exquisite music calligraphy. Unsurprisingly, this comprehensive and beautiful manuscript has long attracted scholarly attention and the details of its production are, in the main, well established and widely accepted. It seems that the earliest layer of the book – commonly referred to as Mo's ‘old corpus’ – was produced in Paris in the late 1270s or 1280s. This old corpus comprises four internal fascicles (numbers 2–6), discrete sections of the manuscript usually devoted to certain musical genres or stylistic types, with the opening of each new fascicle clearly signaled by a historiated initial. Mo's old corpus was later bookended by two additional fascicles (numbers 1 and 7), probably in the 1290s. But the last stage in Mo's compilation, and the status of its final fascicle – number 8, containing forty-three three-voice compositions – remains mysterious and contested. Most scholars agree that the forty-eight folios appended to the end of Mo must be chronologically later than the rest of the codex, but just how much later is still in question. Intriguingly, the contents of fascicle 8 straddle a crucial historiographical juncture: alongside examples of the established thirteenth-century motet tradition represented by the earlier parts of Mo, fascicle 8 features musical and notational techniques conventionally associated with newer practices. Why and at what date was fascicle 8 produced? Was it intended to be part of Mo from the outset? And how and why might this eclectic collection of different types of compositions – some perceptibly outmoded, others noticeably innovative – have come about? The essays in this volume engage with these fundamental questions, challenging and undercutting a still pervasive historiographical division between the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in the study of medieval music.

A slight section of a single manuscript – albeit a provocative and little understood one – Mo 8 might seem an unusual subject for book-length investigation.

Contact between cultures is sometimes perceived in terms of shared literary, dramatic, musical and visual forms, and thought of largely as a question of the geographical spread of styles and ideas over time. However, there is another, entirely different, dimension to contact between cultures, one which is much more commonplace. It arises from trade, and considering this other dimension necessitates expanding our view to accommodate a wider community and, to match it, a wider sense of what we imagine ‘culture’ to be.

Trade compels people with little or no shared language, and perhaps few shared practices, somehow to forge a deal which is sufficiently attractive and advantageous to satisfy all parties involved. In the later Middle Ages, commerce was based upon personal introductions and repeat business among reliable friends. Partnership and mutual profit were core values. Trade entailed a high degree of trust between parties in many important respects, but firstly in the provision of quality merchandise (usually on the basis of viewing a small sample) and secondly where credit was given (often over a period of years). Both Chaucer (working among London merchants as a controller of wool and petty custom) and Boccaccio (working for the Bardi in Naples) were heavily immersed in the world of international commerce in their early years. It was a literate, numerate and intensely skilled practical world, and its entire purpose was to cross national boundaries. Ordinary traders going about their business built a linguistic, economic and social interface between cultures which provided a foundation for the transmission of what might be labelled ‘higher culture’. The fifteenth-century London mercer William Estfield described gold thread as ore filado while the Southampton merchant John Bentham referred to silk as ceta, both men using Italian terms as everyday words, without hesitation, in the full confidence that they would be widely recognized and understood. The English or Italian businessmen of the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries might not consciously have aspired to cultural sophistication themselves (although Chaucer and Boccaccio certainly did), but the numerous points at which their communities intersected were nevertheless vitally important to cultural contact between England and Italy. One of the Venetian galleys which arrived in England just before Christmas 1437, for instance, carried a bale of paper for ‘Titolivio’, described by the London customs collectors as a clerk of the duke of Gloucester – his Ferrara-born poet Tito Livio Frulovisi.

Salutem in Christo.

My very good Lord

I have receyved your Lordships Letters, and with them the other Papers which you sent to me and presently sent them to Mr Mottershed to be kept for Evidence against Hesketh may be taken, And to require him to drawe up an Attachment, with a good round Intimation to bring in Hesketh, and the like though not soe deep for his Pandars. And I assure your Lordship if they come not in I will proceed very roundly, and make worke for the Exchequer. If he be soe wealthy I make noe question but he will give roundly for a Pardon, and shelter himself that waye, but I will be as watchfull as I can to prevent it, and to bring him to that Censure which he deserves. In the mean tyme you doe very well to see that the Harlott be kept safe, and being soe miserably poore to keep her there, till the Court be farther possest, both of the Cause and the Person of the Adulterer.

When you have more of such worke as this ready, if you send it up, wee will doe our Dutyes here, both to punish the Crimes, and to make such farther advantage both for the Churches honour and proffitt, and for his Majesties service, as shall be just and fitting; But it seems this Hesketh is in feare in good earnest if he have sent about his Pardon all ready.

I am very glad, if that which you writt in your last Letters eyther have allready, or be likely to give any ease or reputation hereafter to the Clergye in those partes, in freeing them from the insolency of the inferior Officers which you complained of. And had not Mr Atturney been ill disposed for his health, I should before this tyme have given you farther direction in the other busynes. As for your Judges, I knowe them to be discreet and respective men, and such as will favour the Clergy to the utmost. I pray therfore at your next opportunity commend me to Sir John Bridgman, and let him knowe what confidence I have in him for the Churches good.

March 21 1628

Sir.

It is his Majesties pleasure that there bee a draught drawne for his Majesties Signature of these additions and explanations to and of the Statuts of the Church of Norwich; and hath commaunded mee to give Warrant for it, which I heere doe accordingly under my hand the daie and yeare above written.

Guil: London

To my very worthie Frend Sir Robert Heath Knight his Majesties Attorney generall.

Sir:

I hope Mr Harrington bee with you before this tyme, if hee be not, hee will come tyme enough. But this is noe parte of the occasion of these letters. I am earnestly intreated by Judge Whitlocke my old acquaintance to write to you in the behalfe of one Kidson, if I mistake not the name. His desier is that hee may have your Lawfull favour to be chosen Scholler of Wadham College. He tells me that he is very well reputed of in the house both for his carridge and his Learninge: but howe those things are I shall leave to you and the Seniour Fellowes to judge. Only this I shall desier att my anncient Frends Request, that if the youth be such as he is voic’d, you would then for my sake shewe him all such favour as you shall thinke fitt: and I shall take it for a very good respect both from you and the Fellowes: and I presume the Judge wilbe reddy to acknowledge it, if you have any occasion hereafter to use him. Thus, not doubtinge of your love if you find the youth fitt, I leave you to the grace of God and shall ever rest

Your very Lovinge Frend

Guil: Batho: et Welle:

Westminster. February. 15. 1627.

To the right worshipfull my very Lovinge Frend Dr Smyth Warden of Wadham Colledge in Oxford be these delivered

After my harty commendations etc.

These are to let you understand that his Maiestie out of his pious and Christian care of the church reflected upon his Universities. Hee thought the church of England could noe longer flourish then the Universities did carefully breed up them which afterward were to instruct it. Hereupon his Maiestie resolved to to [sic] take some course to revive that ancient discipline, which made the members of both Universities honoured both at home and abroad both for life and learneinge; His Maiesties neernesse to Oxford when hee was at Woodstocke recalled what hee thought upon in this kinde. There hee gave Mr Vicechancellour and other governours his owne chardge, synce in the absence of my Lord the Duke of Buckingham your most gracious and honourable Chancellour, hee hath commanded mee to write what was then spoken; That both Universities may receave the same rule, goe on the same way, and soe bee the happie mothers of pietie and union through the church; His Maiesties command therefore is that you Mr Vicechancellour and the other governours doe presently cause a search to bee made in all your records for all directions, orders, iniunctions, admonitions or the like concerneinge learneinge or manners which have beene sent in the happy and blessed raigne of Queene Elizabeth and Kinge James of ever glorious memory to that famous Universitie. And that all such bee faithfully transcribed and sent up to mee, that I may deliver them to his Maiestie upon receipt of these from both Universities. his Maiestie will enter into serious consideration, for the good of both and the whole church, and returne his directions accordingly; And of this I am in his Maiesties name to desire you all to take speciall care and make all convenient hast you can; And now haveinge discharged my selfe of my Masters commands, I give you Mr Vicechancellour, and all other the heads and governours with the whole body of that learned University hearty thanks for the great and undeserved favour, which was lately done mee, when I had the honour to waite upon your most honourable Lord and Chancellour.

Salutem in Christo.

My very Good Lord.

I am heartily Glad to heare of your Health, and to see your Sonne safely return’d hither. And, very Glad, also to see by him That the Place, which he hath gotten in those parts, gives him soe much Content. I heartily pray your Lordship to be Confident, That in whatsoever I may farther serve him, or yourselfe, noe man shall be more ready then I shall bee.

My Lord ‘Tis true, I had a Mischance with the Horse, which I thank you, you sent mee about three yeares since. But I did not thinke, either your Lordship or your Sonne should have knowne itt. The truth is, Hee was lost in the Sleepie Disease, and I was like to have lost two or three more with him. And now I thank your Lordship you have supplyed me with another, and as your Sonne telles me, of the same Sire. I can but thanke you, and the Horse lookes extreamly well. When I have tryed him, I am sure I shall give you more Thankes; Because my Groome which hath rid him, telles me his Pace is good, and the Horse himselfe is easily borne. I see your Lordship is resolved, That I shall neither look into my Stable, nor ride upon the way, but you will give me Occasion to remember your kindnes, which, if it please God, I live, I will remember either in yourselfe or your Sonne. So to Gods protection I leave you and rest

Your Lordships very Loving frend and Brother

W: Cant:

Croyden: August 27. 1638.

To the Right Reverend Father in God, my very Good Lord and Brother the Lord Bishop of Chester these

Salutem in Christo

Worthy Sir.

I have safely received your Letters of January 21th and Two Packetts with them with two severall Letters which accompanyed those Packets. The Packets contained the Copies of foure severall Libellous Treatises printed by the fierce Faction at Amsterdam. Two of them I had seene before; But the other Two are new. And one of the Old ones now sent is translated into Dutch to make it the more Common. And extremely full of very base falshood it is; and against the Whole Court of Star Chamber, as well as myselfe; though the chiefe Venome be att mee. The Magistrates of Amsterdam have proceeded very worthily to the punishment of the Chiefe Printer, and Spreader of them, at least by Open Declaration, if he Can be founde. For hee absents himselfe, but the Summons is out against him; And the Copie of the Towne-Act is sent mee. I have acquainted his Majestie with all this, who is very much pleas’d with itt. And you are by His Majesties Command to take some Occasion to Thanke those Magistrates in his Majesties Name for this Service, and the Love which they have exprest, to the Goverment of England both Ecclesiasticall, and Civill.

For the Direction which you desire for the sending of any Pacquets to mee, I have not Experience enough in those parts to direct you; But must leave you to send them by the safest Hand you Can. These which you now sent, Came very safe; And therefore I thinke you may pursue the same way. I Thanke you for the great Expressions of your Love, and shall be ready to returne itt to you upon all good Occasions. So to Gods Blessed Protection I leave you, and rest

Your very Loving friend to serve you

W: Cant:

Lambeth: February 8th. 1638./9.

I pray be pleased to send these Inclosed safe (as they are directed) to Amsterdam. I thanke you heartily for the Little Latine Tract sent to mee, which I receav’d by my Secretaryes hand. But God forbid Mr Grotius should be the Author of it. For though there be Learning enough in it, yett somewhat els there is, which I hope Cannot be his.

Salutem in Christo.

After my harty commendations etc.

I am bold to crave your helping handes in a busines to which I am confident you will all give me your best assistance; in what state the worke of St Paules Church in London (by Gods great blessing) now standes I doubt not but most of you know aswell as my self. Yet I must tell you of all the countyes in England (setting aside the charity of some private gentlemen) that church hath hitherto been least beholding to Wilteshire. For I am credibly informed for theis last two yeeres the publique collection throughout that County brought into the Chamber of London arises but to the summ of eight shillings tenn pence; which is a very poore thinge towards such a building. Theis are therfore hartely to pray you, and every of you by some good meanes or other to put a little more lief into this busines, and that you will deale effectually both with the rest of the Commissioners and other gentlemen of that Countye towards the furtherance of this great and chargeable worke as alsoe with such Clergye men as have not already given in some answerable proportion to theire meanes And to this end I thinke it verie fitting that a book be kept by you or anie one of you wherein the names of such as are minded to give annually or otherwise may be set downe togeither with their severall guiftes. And that as oft as this mony soe collected shall arise to some reasonable sum it be carefully sent up to the chamber of London from whence you are to have your acquittance and discharge gratis. Soe with my prayers to god Almighty to blesse the worke and all those that wish it well I leave you all to his gratious protection And rest

your very loveing Freind

W: Cant:

Lambeth June ultimo 1637.

I have desired Mr. Edward Hyde to be at the paines to acquaint you with theis my Letters and to give anie of you a copy if it seeme needfull. I doubt not but he will take upon him the Care of bringing up anie monye which shalbe given Towards this great worke.

Sir.

I receaved your letters by Mr Subwarden and Mr Huish: and accordinge to the desire of yourselfe and the fellows I have considered of the draught which you sent mee for the supply of your statute of absence. I caused your statute and draught to bee compar’d together, and the authoritie which I had as Visitor to bee considered of the Lawyers that I might bee sure not to err against law, whiles I was busy to mend statute. According to to [sic] their advice and with very littell difference from the Coppie you sent, I have drawne up an addition to your Statute, put it under seale, and sent it downe by this bearer; and I should ever pray that it may bee effectuall to keepe off the Scandall and the daunger which was growinge upon that worthy foundation. I have forborne to put any date to the instrument because the Colledge seale is not to it. And I thinke it fitter to date it at the latter seale, which I pray doe, and my authoritie and consent shall goe with it, of which these my letters may bee witnesse. At the same time I pray draugh another Instrument by this, and put it under your Colledge Seale, and send it up to mee at some oportunity, that it may lie by mee, and bee reddy for mee, yf any doubt should hereafter arise (which god forbid) concerninge it. I pray remember my love to the fellows, with thanks boeth to you and them for your respecte to mee. Soe wisheinge you and them all peace att home in the Colledge, and all successe abroade in the Church, I leave you to the grace of god, and shall ever rest

your loveinge frend

Guil: Bathon: et Welle:

Westminster December 1. 1626.

To the right worshipfull my very worthy frend Doctor Smith Warden of Wadham College in Oxford these delivered.

Worthye Sir:

I see bye your Leters that you have had noe great Joye of your selfe since you left London. I doe not remember anye Act made the last Session that inioyns you to breake soe much sleepe as it seemes you have lost. If you have done it bye Commission, (as it seemes you have) I doe not find anye thinge in your sittinge bye daye that should keepe you wakinge at Night.

I am glad to heare you ar soe well in the midst of such imployment; and all I desyer is you maye continue soe. Soe, I mean for health, but for the imployment as you like it.

I hope your Ladye will doe well, thoughe the Tooth-each hath binn soe much to hir loss. God bless your second sonne, and hir second hopes of securitye: But your selfe especiallye, whoe ar the best securitye both to hir and hirs.

Your Mothers busynes I cann be but sorye to heare of, and I presume the Honour of that table will conceave aright of you and your cause. It is hard it should come to thiss, consideringe what you have offered; but the best of it is, shee will putt you to all att once, and then I hope you will be free hearafter. I profess if I did not find you full of dewtifull respects to your Mother, I should be one of the first that should take libertye to chyde you. But unreasonable demaunds I Cannot skill of. I shall be glad att anye tyme to see you; yett it will not be pleasinge that thiss occasion should bringe you to London before November. I am for the Cuntrye soe soone as the Kinge is gone progress, and shall not have any constant abidinge till Michelmas.

I praye remember mye love and service to your selfe and your Ladye. Booke it not to much: And all other bysinesses will helpe doe themselves. Heare is nothinge but speech of the French Match: But God knowes what Issue these great affaires will have. Thiss onlye I cann assure you of the Lord Saye is made a Vicount. I have noe skill in wrightinge newes.

Salutem in Christo

My very good Lord

I thanke you heartily for all your care and paines; I have received my Lord of Waterfords Letter, and with it the 40li due to the College which I should have never gotten out of his hands, but by my Lords meanes and yours. I have likewise received my Lord of Tuams Letters of his readines to putt of his Commendam; now he is willing I have nothing to say.

I am very glad you have gotten the number of the Kings Impropriations, it will be much the easyer that being knowne, to gett the value. And when you have both, I pray desire my Lord Deputy from me, as ever he will do any thing for the Church, and me, to interest him selfe in the busyness, and soe weighe all the particulars, that his hand may be to the valuation, that I may have noe farther putt offs on this side. And I have written to my Lord Deputy in this returne, what I have done with the Kinge about a Stocke to buye in other Impropriation, according as you formerly writt about the Grant to Mr Murray and Mr Porter etc: And you have very well begun with those of Mr Stawton etc:

I am very glad the Deane of Cashells is made Provost of the College. I hope it is the begining of good there. I have nowe received from thence a Copy of the Statutes, of which I will take as great, and as present a Care as I can; but sudden I cannot be, haveing received a greate heape of busynes from Ireland, and as great att this very instant from Scotland. What oath it is, that the Provost refuseth I cannot guesse, unlesse it be that oath, which belongs to him in the Statutes. And if it be that, then I pray desire the Deane to send me the Clause, or Clauses against which he excepts, for it may be that oath deserves amendment, as well as any other part of the Statutes; and since I began to write these letters I have this Advertisement from the Deane himselfe.

In view of their great variety, number and pervasiveness in everyday life, the impact of spiders in any given cultural climate cries out for investigation. While the abundance of spiders makes them central to the study of ecology and evolution, their commonness and long collective lifespan also position them as prime material for historical discussion. It is, however, these creatures’ literary potential that stands out in the above-quoted ecologist's metaphor. As a highly resilient family, spiders would likely have been as common in early and high medieval England as they are today, making encounters between them and the human communities responsible for our surviving texts certain. How much did the common presence of spiders in quotidian contexts influence writers in this period? One of this article's aims is to address this question, by surveying the background to and instances of spider imagery in Old and early Middle English, with reference to biblical, medical, philosophical, penitential, homiletic, hagiographic and bestiary texts.

It is, however, true that commonness is not always a predictor of popularity within written texts. If spiders do not immediately spring to mind as an animal emblematic of early English literature it is because they are not; references to these abundant creatures are few and far between. From the perspective of Old English, literary engagement with the non-human world frequently betrays a focus on human interests. Hence, predators (wolves, serpents and birds of prey) abound, as do creatures with heroic connotations (horses and boars), and agricultural animals (cattle and bees). Still, as John Baker points out in his discussion of invertebrates in English place-names, ‘[t]hese small creatures are an ever-present aspect of human existence, and although they may not often inspire poetic outpourings or the interest of bureaucrats, they must have occupied a certain space in the early medieval consciousness, as they still do today’. My question, then, is how spiders in particular occupied this space in the medieval consciousness: were they simply present in the background or were they ever considered to be significant to human life in the early and high Middle Ages?

Salutem in Christo.

My very good Lord.

I have been importuned by some Freindes of myne at the Court to write these Letters to your Lordship, and conceyving the Suite they shall motion to be very reasonable, I could not forbeare to trouble you with these few lynes at this theyr earnest request. My Lady Carye tell's me that she hath voluntarily laid downe some thinge of good value in those Partes and left it to the church. And… bee such, that she is very sensible of this Defalcation yet out of her goodnes, as being loath to contend against the Church, and out of her confidence of your noblenes, she hath willingly let goe that holdfast which she had, though the losse therby be somthing prejudiciall to her. And now her earnest Suite and hopes are, that you will stand her freind soe farr as to thinke of some thinge or other that may conveniently be added to her in liew of that which she hath soe readily parted withall. To which I shall adde this request of myne that she being a Lady of very good fashion and quality, and well respected by both theyr Majesties you will take the best care you can to give her content, and as occasion serves let her or her Freindes understand how I have discharged the trust they reposed in me, of writing to you in her behalfe. Soe wishing your Lordship health and happynes I leave you to Gods blessed protection and rest

Your Lordships very lovinge Freind and Brother.

W: Cant:

Croiden July 17. 1638

I am told that what I have here written is noe more then what you selfe did undertake by your promise to the Lady, and therfore I am the more willinge to recommend her Case to your Lordship.

To the right Reverend Father in God my very good Lord and Brother the Lord Bishop of Derry in Ireland. these