Dr. M. J. Toswell

Manuscript Cut

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About Me

D.Phil., University of Oxford, 1991 - Faculty of English Language and Literature
BA (Hons.), McMaster University, 1983 - English and Spanish


My primary research concerns the most popular text available in Anglo-Saxon England, the biblical book of psalms. I principally study psalter manuscripts, especially the bilingual psalters in prose and poetry which account for about a fifth of the surviving texts in Old English (English as it was spoken and written before about 1100). At the moment, with my colleague M.S. Griffith at New College, Oxford, I am editing the longest surviving poem in Old English, a translation of the psalms known as the Paris Psalter.

I also publish on the codicology of early medieval manuscripts; that is, the preparation and compilation of copies of texts before the thirteenth century. Finally, I also work in the field of medievalism, the modern reception of the Middle Ages, and have published on a range of modern British and Canadian responses to the medieval period. In my spare time I teach and read speculative fiction, both science fiction and fantasy; read in the field of academic freedom and governance; and serve as an affiliate member of the Department of Women's Studies and Feminist Research.

Illuminated Letter

 German missal, ca. 1125

German Missal


University of Western OntarioDepartment of English • Email: mjtoswel@uwo.ca HomePast and Current CoursesRecent Publications 411