Sebastian Sobecki - News from the Archive: An Unknown Personal Manuscript by Thomas Hoccleve

Sebastian Sobecki will speak as part of the CMS January 13 Convivium. Join us in person, or on Zoom. Meeting ID: 895 5163 1921 Passcode: 737825 

Abstract: Thomas Hoccleve (1368-1426) has emerged as a leading English fifteenth-century poet. His deeply autobiographical work has been celebrated as intimate and modern, original and arresting. Hoccleve was also a professional government clerk, toiling for 40 years in the Privy Seal Office, and his handwriting is the best known of all medieval English scribes. He appears to have been in charge of promoting Chaucer’s reputation after his death, and he may have been responsible for London’s emerging literary scene. This talk will reveal, for the first time, a hitherto unknown personal manuscript by Hoccleve.