ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on reconsider notions of miscellaneity by examining the circulation of a miscellany's constituent parts, using that analysis to understand more broadly the nature of the separates and fascicles that formed a vital component in the production of a miscellany. A miscellany's compilers gathered material from a range of different sources and textual traditions and copied or bound them into a single volume over a period of time, as and when their source material became available. Their sources usually included single sheets, small gatherings of related texts, and shorter booklets of texts. However, the moment of anthologization did not always mark the end of a text's lifespan: once collected into a miscellany, single texts and groups of texts were frequently copied out of these volumes to be recirculated in other, often shorter, bibliographical formats. The manuscript miscellany can thus function as an archival cocoon, producing new interpretive possibilities by releasing its contents into new contexts.
