Siân Echard

she/her/hers
Professor | English Honours Coordinator
Office Hours
BuTo 514
Period/Nation Research Area
Education

BA, Queen's University
MA, PhD, University of Toronto


About

I completed my graduate work at the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto in 1990, and have been at UBC since then. I am a medievalist and a book historian. My interests include twelfth-century Anglo-Latin literature, particular Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia regum Britannie; Arthurian literature; the works of John Gower; and the post-medieval reception and transmission of medieval texts. My books include Arthurian Narrative in the Latin Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998) and The Arthur of Medieval Latin Literature (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2011); A Companion to Gower (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2004); and Printing the Middle Ages (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008). With Robert Rouse, I am the general editor of The Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature in Britain (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2017).

I have just completed a co-written history of the book in Britain, and am working on a study of facsimiles of medieval manuscripts, from the early modern period to the present. I am endlessly fascinated by how the preservation and presentation of text—on the page, in the archive, in the digital world—affects how that text is received and discussed.


Teaching


Publications

Selected recent publications:

“Charming the Snake: Accessing and Disciplining the Medieval Manuscript,” co-authored with Andrew Prescott. In The Cambridge Companion to Medieval British Manuscripts, edited by Orietta Da Rold and Elaine Treharne. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020, pp. 237 – 66

“Rolling with it: Navigating Absence in the Digital Realm.” In Medieval Manuscripts in the Digital Age, edited by Benjamin Albritton, Georgia Henley, and Elaine Treharne (London: Routledge, 2020), pp. 82 – 90

The Book in Britain: A Historical Introduction. Co-authored with Daniel Allington, David A. Brewer, and Stephen Colclough. Edited by Zachary Lesser. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2019

The Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature in Britain. General editor, with Robert Rouse. Associate editors, Helen Fulton, Geoff Rector, and Jacqueline Ray. 4 vols. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2017.

“Palimpsests of Place and Time in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia regum Britannie.” In Teaching and Learning in Medieval Europe: Essays in Honour of Gernot R. Wieland on his 67th Birthday, edited by Greti Dinkova-Bruun and Tristan Major (Turnhout: Brepols, 2017), pp. 43-59.

“How Gower Found His Vox: Latin and John Gower’s Poetics.” The Journal of Medieval Latin 26 (2016): 291-314.

“The Naked Truth: Chaucerian Spectacle in Brian Helgeland’s A Knight’s Tale.” In Chaucer on Screen: Absence, Presence, and Adapting the Canterbury Tales, edited by Kathleen Kelly and Tison Pugh (Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 2016), pp. 169-185.

“Containing the Book: The Institutional Afterlives of Medieval Manuscripts.” In The Medieval Manuscript Book: Cultural Approaches, edited by Michael Johnston and Michael van Dussen (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015), pp. 96-118.

“The Long and the Short of it: On Gower’s Forms.” In John Gower in England and Iberia: Manuscripts, Influences, Reception, ed. Ana Sáez-Hidalgo and R.F. Yeager (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2014), pp. 245-60.

“Remembering Brutus: Aaron Thompson’s British History of 1718.” Arthurian Literature 30 (2013): 141-69.

“Whose History? Naming Practices in the Transmission of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia regum Britannie.” Arthuriana 22.4 (2012): 8-24.

The Arthur of Medieval Latin Literature: The Development and Dissemination of the Arthurian Legend in Medieval Latin. Edited. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2011.


Siân Echard

she/her/hers
Professor | English Honours Coordinator
Office Hours
BuTo 514
Period/Nation Research Area
Education

BA, Queen's University
MA, PhD, University of Toronto


About

I completed my graduate work at the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto in 1990, and have been at UBC since then. I am a medievalist and a book historian. My interests include twelfth-century Anglo-Latin literature, particular Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia regum Britannie; Arthurian literature; the works of John Gower; and the post-medieval reception and transmission of medieval texts. My books include Arthurian Narrative in the Latin Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998) and The Arthur of Medieval Latin Literature (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2011); A Companion to Gower (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2004); and Printing the Middle Ages (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008). With Robert Rouse, I am the general editor of The Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature in Britain (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2017).

I have just completed a co-written history of the book in Britain, and am working on a study of facsimiles of medieval manuscripts, from the early modern period to the present. I am endlessly fascinated by how the preservation and presentation of text—on the page, in the archive, in the digital world—affects how that text is received and discussed.


Teaching


Publications

Selected recent publications:

“Charming the Snake: Accessing and Disciplining the Medieval Manuscript,” co-authored with Andrew Prescott. In The Cambridge Companion to Medieval British Manuscripts, edited by Orietta Da Rold and Elaine Treharne. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020, pp. 237 – 66

“Rolling with it: Navigating Absence in the Digital Realm.” In Medieval Manuscripts in the Digital Age, edited by Benjamin Albritton, Georgia Henley, and Elaine Treharne (London: Routledge, 2020), pp. 82 – 90

The Book in Britain: A Historical Introduction. Co-authored with Daniel Allington, David A. Brewer, and Stephen Colclough. Edited by Zachary Lesser. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2019

The Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature in Britain. General editor, with Robert Rouse. Associate editors, Helen Fulton, Geoff Rector, and Jacqueline Ray. 4 vols. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2017.

“Palimpsests of Place and Time in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia regum Britannie.” In Teaching and Learning in Medieval Europe: Essays in Honour of Gernot R. Wieland on his 67th Birthday, edited by Greti Dinkova-Bruun and Tristan Major (Turnhout: Brepols, 2017), pp. 43-59.

“How Gower Found His Vox: Latin and John Gower’s Poetics.” The Journal of Medieval Latin 26 (2016): 291-314.

“The Naked Truth: Chaucerian Spectacle in Brian Helgeland’s A Knight’s Tale.” In Chaucer on Screen: Absence, Presence, and Adapting the Canterbury Tales, edited by Kathleen Kelly and Tison Pugh (Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 2016), pp. 169-185.

“Containing the Book: The Institutional Afterlives of Medieval Manuscripts.” In The Medieval Manuscript Book: Cultural Approaches, edited by Michael Johnston and Michael van Dussen (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015), pp. 96-118.

“The Long and the Short of it: On Gower’s Forms.” In John Gower in England and Iberia: Manuscripts, Influences, Reception, ed. Ana Sáez-Hidalgo and R.F. Yeager (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2014), pp. 245-60.

“Remembering Brutus: Aaron Thompson’s British History of 1718.” Arthurian Literature 30 (2013): 141-69.

“Whose History? Naming Practices in the Transmission of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia regum Britannie.” Arthuriana 22.4 (2012): 8-24.

The Arthur of Medieval Latin Literature: The Development and Dissemination of the Arthurian Legend in Medieval Latin. Edited. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2011.


Siân Echard

she/her/hers
Professor | English Honours Coordinator
Office Hours
BuTo 514
Period/Nation Research Area
Education

BA, Queen's University
MA, PhD, University of Toronto

About keyboard_arrow_down

I completed my graduate work at the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto in 1990, and have been at UBC since then. I am a medievalist and a book historian. My interests include twelfth-century Anglo-Latin literature, particular Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia regum Britannie; Arthurian literature; the works of John Gower; and the post-medieval reception and transmission of medieval texts. My books include Arthurian Narrative in the Latin Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998) and The Arthur of Medieval Latin Literature (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2011); A Companion to Gower (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2004); and Printing the Middle Ages (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008). With Robert Rouse, I am the general editor of The Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature in Britain (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2017).

I have just completed a co-written history of the book in Britain, and am working on a study of facsimiles of medieval manuscripts, from the early modern period to the present. I am endlessly fascinated by how the preservation and presentation of text—on the page, in the archive, in the digital world—affects how that text is received and discussed.

Teaching keyboard_arrow_down
Publications keyboard_arrow_down

Selected recent publications:

“Charming the Snake: Accessing and Disciplining the Medieval Manuscript,” co-authored with Andrew Prescott. In The Cambridge Companion to Medieval British Manuscripts, edited by Orietta Da Rold and Elaine Treharne. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020, pp. 237 – 66

“Rolling with it: Navigating Absence in the Digital Realm.” In Medieval Manuscripts in the Digital Age, edited by Benjamin Albritton, Georgia Henley, and Elaine Treharne (London: Routledge, 2020), pp. 82 – 90

The Book in Britain: A Historical Introduction. Co-authored with Daniel Allington, David A. Brewer, and Stephen Colclough. Edited by Zachary Lesser. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2019

The Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature in Britain. General editor, with Robert Rouse. Associate editors, Helen Fulton, Geoff Rector, and Jacqueline Ray. 4 vols. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2017.

“Palimpsests of Place and Time in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia regum Britannie.” In Teaching and Learning in Medieval Europe: Essays in Honour of Gernot R. Wieland on his 67th Birthday, edited by Greti Dinkova-Bruun and Tristan Major (Turnhout: Brepols, 2017), pp. 43-59.

“How Gower Found His Vox: Latin and John Gower’s Poetics.” The Journal of Medieval Latin 26 (2016): 291-314.

“The Naked Truth: Chaucerian Spectacle in Brian Helgeland’s A Knight’s Tale.” In Chaucer on Screen: Absence, Presence, and Adapting the Canterbury Tales, edited by Kathleen Kelly and Tison Pugh (Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 2016), pp. 169-185.

“Containing the Book: The Institutional Afterlives of Medieval Manuscripts.” In The Medieval Manuscript Book: Cultural Approaches, edited by Michael Johnston and Michael van Dussen (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015), pp. 96-118.

“The Long and the Short of it: On Gower’s Forms.” In John Gower in England and Iberia: Manuscripts, Influences, Reception, ed. Ana Sáez-Hidalgo and R.F. Yeager (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2014), pp. 245-60.

“Remembering Brutus: Aaron Thompson’s British History of 1718.” Arthurian Literature 30 (2013): 141-69.

“Whose History? Naming Practices in the Transmission of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia regum Britannie.” Arthuriana 22.4 (2012): 8-24.

The Arthur of Medieval Latin Literature: The Development and Dissemination of the Arthurian Legend in Medieval Latin. Edited. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2011.