University of Pennsylvania Finding Aids

Consists of 15 boxes of Albert Croll Baugh’s professional papers, including correspondence, research materials, a catalog of the book collection he donated to the University of Pennsylvania libraries, and reproductions of various medieval manuscripts. The correspondence is professional and overwhelmingly relates to Baugh’s research. The research materials consist primarily of notes, unpublished article reviews, reprints of articles, and newspaper clippings, and make up the greater bulk of the collection. These materials cover Middle English, French and Anglo-Latin literature and literary history in the twelfth through sixteenth centuries. Specific topics covered in the research materials include Arthurian legends, Chaucer, Middle English language (including spelling, grammar and punctuation) and literature (especially romances, plays and lyric works), Piers Plowman, and the concept of the table dormant, as well as the teaching of English and the editing of medieval texts. The catalog records Baugh’s extensive personal research library and can additionally be found on microfilm, along with various medieval manuscripts on microfilm. The bulk of the manuscript reproductions are, however, in photograph, facsimile or photocopied form. These manuscripts are primarily in Middle English (with a few in Latin) and include various transcriptions of the Ancren riwle (a 13th century text of rules for anchoresses, one version of which Baugh edited and then published in 1956), two versions of Piers Plowman, (the B and C texts), various English public records, and miscellaneous other Middle English works.