The Cotton Nero A.x project is the result of an international collaboration between Canadian scholars and the British Library. The manuscript is held in the British Library’s collection and is the only known record of the poems Pearl, Cleanness, Patience, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. In order to facilitate future research and public access of these historic texts, the project aims first to make available high-quality digital photographs of the entire manuscript. The second goal of this project is to transcribe the entire manuscript at the highest possible level of accuracy and detail. The final goal is to produce editions of each of the individual poems in which the digital facsimiles and the new transcriptions serve as a basis for a new critical text with glossary, full-textual and explanatory notes, and other supports for readers.

Recent Activities:

♦ 2019. Olsen, Kenna L., ed. Cleanness. London, British Library MS Cotton Nero A.x. (art 3): A Commented Transcription [part of London, British Library MS Cotton Nero A.x. (art 3). A Digital Facsimile and Commented Transcription]. Project 3. General editor: Murray McGillivray. Calgary: Cotton Nero A.x. Project: 2018. 290 pages in print, web. Peer reviewed (Tier 2, equivalent to standard double-blind scholarly review) by Medieval Electronic Scholarly Alliance, 2019.

♦ 2019. Olsen, Kenna L, ed. Cleanness, 2015. The Poems of British Library MS Cotton Nero A.x. (art. 3): A Critical Edition. Publications of the Cotton Nero A.x. Project 4. gawain-MS.ca 2014 to present. Peer-reviewed (Tier 2, equivalent to standard double-blind scholarly review) by Medieval Electronic Scholarly Alliance, 2019.

♦ 2019.  Olsen, Kenna L. ed. Cleanness: A Diplomatic Edition with Textual, Codicological and Paleographic Notes. Publications of the Cotton Nero A.x. Project 1. 2011. Peer-reviewed (Tier 2, equivalent to standard double-blind scholarly review) by Medieval Scholarly Alliance, 2019.

♦ 2019. Olsen, Kenna, L. and Murray McGillivray. Cotton Nero A.x. Project Transcription Policy. Publications of the Cotton Nero A.x. Project 2. Calgary: Cotton Nero A.x. Project, 2011. Peer-reviewed (Tier 2, equivalent to standard double-blind scholarly review) by Medieval Electronic Scholarly Alliance, 2019.

♦ 2018:  The Poems of London, British Library MS Cotton Nero A.x. (art. 3): A Critical Edition. Publications of the Cotton Nero A.x. Project 4.

♦ 2012: Murray McGillivray, ed. London, British Library MS Cotton Nero A.x. (art. 3): A Digital Facsimile and Commented Transcription. Publications of the Cotton Nero A.x. Project 3. Calgary: Cotton Nero A.x. Project, 2012 – 2019 (ongoing).

♦ 2011: Olsen, Kenna L. Cleanness: A Diplomatic Edition with Textual, Codicologial, and Paleographical Notes. Publications of the Cotton Nero A.x. Project 1. Calgary: Cotton Nero A.x. Project, 2011.

Please visit the project’s website for more information: www.gawain-ms.ca