The Author and the Authors of the 'Vita Ædwardi Regis:' Women's Literary Culture and Digital Humanities

Dockray-Miller, Mary and Drout, Michael D.C. and Kinkade, Sarah and Valerio, Jillian (2021) The Author and the Authors of the 'Vita Ædwardi Regis:' Women's Literary Culture and Digital Humanities. Interfaces: A Journal of Medieval European Literatures, 8. pp. 160-213. ISSN 2421-5503

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Abstract

[EN] Commissioned by Queen Edith in the 1060s, the Vita Ædwardi Regis (hereafter VER) has recently received substantial scholarly attention, including focus on identification of the author of this putatively anonymous text; the quest for authorial identification has until now proceeded with the assumption of sole authorship of the text. Lexomics, an open-access vocabulary analysis tool, adds digital strategies to more traditional literary and historical analyses; the Lexomic evidence indicates that the VER is a composite text built by multiple contributors under the direction of the queen. Not only did Edith's patronage cause the VER to be written, but her knowledge, and her personal and political interests, shaped the Life's content. Hers was the active, guiding intellect behind the entire text, and in two passages the VER appears not only to communicate the queen's intentions but also to preserve her voice. If any one person is to be identified as the 'author' of the VER, therefore, it is Edith, guiding a team of writers and scribes to tell her story.

Tipologia del documento:	Articolo in rivista
Parole chiave:	Vita Ædwardi Regis; Queen Edith; Lexomics; vocabulary analysis; authorship
Soggetto:	D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D111 Medieval History P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN0441 Literary History
Depositato il:	21 Ago 2026 21:41
Ultima modifica:	22 Ago 2026 14:26
URI:	https://www.rmoa.unina.it/id/eprint/8011

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