understood without much trouble. The third chapter is dedicated to the Core Group: the description of the manuscripts, the construction of the booklets, and their origin. The chapter contains a… Click to show full abstract
understood without much trouble. The third chapter is dedicated to the Core Group: the description of the manuscripts, the construction of the booklets, and their origin. The chapter contains a similar level of detail to the previous one, presenting the information in an orderly way, substantiated by diagrams of quires and tables. Following this extensive description is an account of the topics covered in the manuscripts and their context. Alchemy in particular requires some explanation, considering its unlawfulness in fifteenth-century England. The fourth chapter discusses the subgroup ‘Family Resemblance’: manuscripts that display some resemblance but cannot be said to belong to either other subgroup. This subgroup was created by Voigts, just as the others, and Honkapohja discusses them thoroughly. However, while he recognizes that the manuscripts had a shared origin, the author considers all but one source in the subgroup to be irrelevant to the Core Group. He bases this on a lack of textual resemblance and overlap in codicological characteristics. The last two chapters of the book deal with the language and multilingualism of the Group. Honkapohja determines a clear-cut rift between the English and Latin languages, where the Latin text covers the technical material while the English appears to serve as an aid for those who did not adequately understand Latin. The two languages lack equal sophistication; it would appear the Group’s reputation of multilingualism is tenuous at best. Honkapohja ends his book with an impressive dialectological analysis of the language used in the manuscripts, and an appendix containing the full collation of one of the texts. Honkapohja’s Alchemy, Medicine, and Commercial Book Production: A Codicological and Linguistic Study of the Voigts-Sloane Manuscript Group offers a comprehensive analysis of the manuscripts through an ambitious combination of codicological and linguistic approaches. While technical at times, the descriptions are detailed and well structured, making it a pleasant read. Ten years well spent, I would say! flora guiJt, The Hague, The Netherlands
               
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