The author wishes to thank Judith Bennett, Cynthia Herrup, Maryanne Kowaleski, Pamela Robinson and Christopher Whittick for their assistance with this article. The anonymous reader's comments were immensely helpful in making revisions. The photograph was taken by Curtis Oliver. The author is particularly grateful to John Gordan III for allowing her to view and photograph his manuscript in Sept. 2006, and for his generosity with his time and his interest in her research. She wishes especially to thank Caroline Barron for telling her of the Gordan manuscript in the first place, and for providing countless suggestions and corrections to this article. This is properly Caroline's discovery, although of course any errors of fact or interpretation are the author's.
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New light on the life and manuscripts of a political pamphleteer: Thomas Fovent†
Article first published online: 19 AUG 2008
DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2281.2008.00476.x
© Institute of Historical Research 2008
Additional Information
How to Cite
Oliver, C. (2010), New light on the life and manuscripts of a political pamphleteer: Thomas Fovent. Historical Research, 83: 60–68. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2281.2008.00476.x
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Publication History
- Issue published online: 15 DEC 2009
- Article first published online: 19 AUG 2008
Abstract
This article offers new information regarding a little-known manuscript of the Historia Mirabilis Parliamenti by Thomas Fovent, found in a private collection in New York, and presents a more complete portrait of the author's life. Fovent's Historia is a lively account of the Merciless Parliament of 1388 and has long been known to scholars from May McKisack's 1926 edition published in the Camden Miscellany, based on the only known manuscript in the Bodleian Library. The recent digitization of Thomas Fovent's will by The National Archives provides readily available definitive proof that Fovent lived and worked as part of London's bureaucratic milieu in the later fourteenth century.