The Wonders of the East: Knowledge and Transmission

The Old English text 'The Wonders of the East' is found in two eleventh-century manuscripts: the scientific miscellany Cotton Tiberius B.v. and the collection of Old English prose and poetry known as the Nowell Codex.

Despite the multitude of textual and contextual differences between the manuscripts, critical editions of 'The Wonders of the East' have historically treated the two versions as one work surviving in varying stages of completeness.

My thesis proposes an entirely new paradigm; it argues that the texts are distinct, representing the evolution of a global tradition that endured from Late Antiquity into the High Middle Ages.