WEMSK Introduction

Introduction

This list is based on a privatissimum I gave many years ago, entitled A Casual Taxonomy of Things a Medievalist Should Know. I gave answers to students' questions viva voce, and they were taken down by Wayne Kraft. This is a casual taxonomy of the interests of one privatissimum; it is not carved in stone; you can add to it, use it, or ignore it. Additions and comments are welcome. I will be sending out an installment of What Every Medievalist Should Know each Monday for eighty Mondays, a number each Monday on the internet listserv "Medieval Texts - Philology Codicology and Technology," or MEDTEXTL. These lists are meant for the beginning-to-semi-advanced graduate student. The specialist will find nothing here. Also, they are meant to get you started, and to allow you to work up a new field (see Handout on Getting Started in a New Field). This new incarnation of WEMSK will bring the book references up to date, but I thought to include Web sites as well. No one can know it all, and this no one knows very little of such things, so you can be of tremendous help. Do you know any great site for the things mentioned in WEMSK? Anything that you know and can recommend, send it on: URLs cheerfully accepted.

                                  Professor James W. Marchand,
     Professor Emeritus of German, Comparative Literature, and Linguistics at the
                           University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.