Miscellany
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"Peace be with the soul of that charitable and courteous author who, for the common benefit of his fellow-authors, introduced the ingenious way of miscellaneous writing!" --Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times (1711) by Shaftesbury |
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A miscellany is a collection of various pieces of writing by different authors. Meaning a mixture, medley, or assortment, a miscellany can include pieces on many subjects and in a variety of different forms.
In contrast to anthologies, whose aim is to give a selective and canonical view of literature, miscellanies were produced for the entertainment of a contemporary audience and so instead emphasise collectiveness and popularity.
Manuscript miscellanies are important in the Middle Ages, and are the sources for most surviving shorter medieval vernacular poetry. Medieval miscellanies often include completely different types of text, mixing poetry with legal documents, recipes, music, medical and devotional literature and other types of text, and in medieval contexts a mixture of types of text is often taken as a necessary condition for describing a manuscript as a miscellany. They may have been written as a collection, or represent manuscripts of different origins that were later bound together for convenience. In the early modern period miscellanies remained significant in a more restricted literary context, both in manuscript and printed forms, mainly as a vehicle for collections of shorter pieces of poetry, but also other works. Their numbers increased until their peak of importance in the 18th century, when over 1000 English poetry miscellanies were published, before the rise of anthologies in the early 19th century. The printed miscellany gradually morphed into the format of the regularly published magazine, and many early magazines used the word in their titles.
Etymology
From Latin miscellus (“mixed”), from misceō (“to mix”).
Linking in as of 2022
1685 in poetry, A Shabby Genteel Story, Aaron Hill (writer), Anthology, Avram Miletić, Barkham Burroughs' Encyclopaedia, Blackwood's Magazine, Catherine Cuthbertson, Charles Dryden (English writer), Chilam Balam, Claude Fauchet (historian), Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, Commonplace book, Devonshire manuscript, Dick Swanson, Dongmyeong ilgi, Edward Forster (writer), Epistolary novel, Escape Velocity: A Charles Portis Miscellany, Francis Peck, Georg Pfeffer, Glagolita Clozianus, Henry Houssaye, Hester Chapone, Holy Sonnets, Hound & Horn, I before E except after C, Jaguar, John Aubrey, John Norris (philosopher), Kosovo curse, List of ancient Romans, List of encyclopedias by date, List of illuminated manuscripts, List of prehistoric foraminifera genera, Louis de Laval, Ludovic Lloyd, Lycidas, Maat, Mailin mac Tanaide Ó Maolconaire, Mary Monck, Mary Whateley, Merseburg charms, Middle English lyric, Miscellanea Malacologica, Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang, Miscellaneous, Mo (Chinese zoology), Nicholas Breton, Nikša Ranjina's Miscellany, North French Hebrew Miscellany, Outline of books, Paper marbling, Pilip Ballach Ó Duibhgeannáin, Pir Piai, Prologue, Raimondo Capizucchi, Recueil d'Arras, Rigveda, Semyon Raich, Shakespeare's sonnets, Sviatoslav II of Kiev, Term Catalogue, The Anglo-Saxon Review, The Book of the White Earl, The Saturday Book, The Time of Her Time, Theological miscellany (British Library, Add MS 43460), Thing Explainer, Thomas Pennant Barton, Thomas Rymer, Thomas Trevelyon, Tim Book Two: Vinyl Adventures from Istanbul to San Francisco, Tottel's Miscellany, Trevelyon Miscellany of 1608, Vercelli Book, V-in-square map, Western canon, What If? (book)
See also
- 18th century in literature
- Commonplace books
- Digital humanities
- Florilegium
- History of the book
- Manuscripts
- Street literature
