Bard Swallow wins CMS Publication Prize

January 30, 2024 by Centre for Medieval Studies

Congratulations to PhD Candidate, Bard Swallow who has been awarded the CMS Publication Prize for Common Authorship and the “Anonymous of Calais”: Reassessing an Anglo-Latin Political Poem from the Fourteenth Century, which appeared in the Journal of Medieval Latin 33 (2023) pp. 89-118.

Bard's paper re-examines a fourteenth-century Anglo-Latin political poem last edited in the nineteenth century, known as the Cantica Leticie. Before providing a modern edition of the poem, the paper also addresses A.G. Rigg’s claim that a single author, whom he labels the “Anonymous of Calais,” is responsible for Cantica Leticie and a few other contemporary poems. It argues against Rigg’s common authorship claim from both codicological and internal stylistic evidence, concluding instead that the similarities Rigg notes point to a literary community rather than a single prolific poet.