Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies Honours A.V.C. Schmidt

Posted on: 24 October 2014

Trinity College Dublin’s Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies recently honoured the renowned Piers Plowman and Chaucer scholar, A.V.C. Schmidt, at Balliol College, Oxford, with a Festschrift dedicated to him. 

Entitled Truthe is the beste, the volume is edited by Nicolas Jacobs and Gerald Morgan, and contains contributions from eminent medieval scholars from Ireland (Alan Fletcher, UCD; Gerald Morgan, TCD), the UK (John Burrow, Bristol; Helen Cooper, Cambridge; Peter Field, Bangor; Vincent Gillespie, Oxford; Nicolas Jacobs, Oxford; Rory McTurk, Leeds; Seamus Perry, Oxford; Thorlac Turville-Petre, Nottingham; Barry Windeatt, Cambridge) and the US (Mary Carruthers, NYU; Mary Clemente Davlin, O. P., Dominican).

The book is the first in a new inter- and multi-disciplinary series established by the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, entitled Court Cultures of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and published by Peter Lang. The referred series will focus on the rich diversity of European and Renaissance court culture.

Carl Schmidt is best known for his monumental Parallel-Text Edition of Piers Plowman, in many ways the fulfilment of Skeat’s pioneering work on the text in the nineteenth century. The thirteen essays in this book are designed to reflect the range of his interests and are intended to build upon the legacy of his exemplary scholarship. Dr Schmidt was a Fellow at Balliol College, Oxford from 1972 until his retirement in 2011.

The launch was hosted by Sir Drummond and Lady Vivian Bone in the Master’s Lodgings.  Trinity was represented by the Director of the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Dr Sarah Alyn Stacey, editor of the new series, and by the co-editor, Dr Gerald Morgan, Director of the Chaucer Hub, one of the Centre’s research clusters.