Julia Boffey, a member of the Early Book Society almost from its inception, died on Friday, September 11, after suffering a long illness. She was instrumental in the organization and running of the early EBS conferences, those in Durham, Dublin, Sheffield (hosted by Norman Blake in 1993), the University of Nottingham (arranged by Helen Phillips in 1995), the University of Wales, Trinity St David’s, Lampeter, organized by William Marx and Janet Burton with Alcuin Blamires in 1997, and the University of Glasgow (hosted by Jeremy Smith 1999). In addition to co-editing Texts and Their Contexts: Papers from the Early Book Society in 1997 with John Scattergood, she reviewed several books for the Journal of the Early Book Society and remained  active, again from its inception, on the editorial board of EBS’s Texts & Transitions series with Brepols; she read every proposal carefully, commented sagely, and most recently oversaw publication of Emily Wingfield’s Scotland’s Royal Women and European Literary Culture, 1424–1587 (Texts & Transitions 14, 2023).

She taught in the department of English at Queen Mary University of London for many years before her retirement in 2022. Her main subject of study was Middle English lyrics along with anthologies, and later, chronicles. Like most EBS members, she was also always interested in the transition from MS to print.  Among her many publications are Manuscripts of English Courtly Love Lyrics in the Middle Ages (1985), Chaucer and Fifteenth-Century Poetry, edited with Janet Cowen (1991), London and Europe in the Fifteenth Century, edited with Pamela King (1995), The Oxford Anthology of English Literature, edited with J. Trapp and Douglas Gray (2002), Fifteenth-Century English Dream Visions: An Anthology (2003), Recording Medieval Lives: Proceedings of the 2005 Harlaxton Symposium, edited with Virginia Davis (2009), A Companion to Fifteenth-Century English Poetry, edited with A. S. G. Edwards (2013), and Henry VII’s London in the Great Chronicle (2019).

Julia also wrote numerous articles and reviews and contributed to books celebrating EBS members, writing on sermon verse in Preaching the Word in Manuscript and Print: Essays in Honour of Susan Powell (2013) and on the Great Chronicle of London and related chronicles in Editing and Interpretation of Middle English Texts: Essays in Honour of William Marx (2018). Julia further served on the council of the Harlaxton Symposium and recently proofread and commented on the introduction of Women in Late Medieval Britain: Makers, Patrons and Readers Proceedings of the 2024 Harlaxton Symposium, edited by Martha Driver and Marlene Hennessy.

Generous with her time, gentle in spirit, Julia exemplified, for this writer, grace under pressure in her final illness. She played an active part in a network of scholars, not only befriending but inspiring, others with her brilliant scholarship and interesting insights, which were always kindly and courteously offered.

Roger S. Wieck died Friday following lengthy treatment for cancer. He had just retired from the Morgan Library & Museum (on January 1) where he served for many years as the Melvin R. Seiden Curator and Department Head of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts. Some of you will have met Roger last summer when he generously volunteered to show Morgan manuscripts to conferees at the EBS NYU meeting.

Roger was a prolific author and essayist. His books include Time Sanctified: The Book of Hours in Medieval Art and Life (1988); Painted Prayers: The Book of Hours in Medieval and Renaissance Art (1997); Miracles in Miniature: The Art of the Master of Claude de France (2014); and The Medieval Calendar: Locating Time in the Middle Ages (2017). He also provided introductory commentaries to manuscript facsimiles, including The Prayer Book of Anne de Bretagne (1999), The Prayer Book of Claude de France (2010), The Primer of Claude de France (2012), The Van Damme Hours (2013), and The Hours of Henry VIII (2016).

Roger was a good friend to the Early Book Society and to so many people. His lectures, which were always pristine in their presentation, were beautifully illustrated and delivered. He was extraordinarily generous with his time, attending to students and their professors alike. He also taught for many years at the Rare Book School at the University of Virginia.
I shall very much miss seeing him when I return to the Morgan Library Reading Room.  
— Martha Driver

Our friend and long-time EBS member Mary-Jo Arn died in Dorchester, MA, the week before last. The circumstances remain unclear. According to reports, she was on her way to the library (the best place for scholars to be) when she was hit by a car (or fell?) though she sustained no bruises or broken bones. Recently, she had made a remarkable recovery from a stroke that, however, had impaired her eyesight which may have been a factor. The fall caused an inoperable brain bleed.

I remember Mary-Jo from meetings of the Medieval Club of NY, the Medieval Academy, the York Medieval Conference, Kalamazoo, and Early Book Society conferences and meetings. She was a leading expert on the poetry and texts of Charles d’Orléans and published a volume in the EBS series Texts & Transitions, The Poet’s Notebook: The Personal Manuscripts of Charles d’ Orléans (Paris, BnF, MS fr. 25458) in 2008, which received positive reviews in Speculum, Philological Quarterly, and Medium Aevum, among others. We also remember her work as Reviews Editor at Speculum. Mary-Jo had just received her copy of the new Oxford Chaucer edition to which she had spent many years contributing and had started on a new research project. Dorothy Africa wrote, “We are all sad to lose our friend and gifted scholar, but I am thankful that she left us on a personal high point with an ambitious research project before her.” I await information on a charity or not-for-profit to which donations might be made in her memory, and I wish to thank Dorothy Africa and Jenna Mead for contacting me.

Martha Driver