In Review

(Photo: J. Adam Fenster)

EARLY EDITION: A newly acquired, rare copy of the influential 14th-century English poet John Gower’s Confessio Amantis is on exhibit through January at the Rossell Hope Robbins Library, part of the River Campus Libraries. Gower completed the work, which was dedicated to Richard II and Geoffrey Chaucer, in 1390; after this 1554 edition, the poem was not reprinted again until the 19th century. Consequently, centuries of readers and writers—including William Shakespeare, Sir Philip Sidney, and John Dryden—encountered Gower primarily through this edition. Home to one of the most extensive medieval studies collections in North America and a longtime center of Gower studies, the library marks its 30th anniversary this year.