ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the thirteenth- to sixteenth-century annotations in OE MSS, paying special attention to MSS which have notes and glosses in ME. It presents a survey of the present state of our knowledge of them, including information on what kinds of annotation were made, on when and where they were made, on what kinds of texts attracted annotation, and whether or not they were understood. One of the commonplaces in our study of English language and literature has been that Old English passed out of use as a literary language about the year 1200, and that its study did not revive until the middle of the sixteenth century. In the controversy over the continuity of English prose and poetry, the arguments have emphasized the continuity of subject matter and style rather than text and manuscript. No one has suggested that OE MSS were read continuously throughout the later Middle Ages.
