Research Overview

Steven Rozenski studies late medieval English and German literature and devotional culture, focusing particularly on the translation and adaptation of Continental contemplative texts in England before and after the Reformation (ca. 1300-1600). He has written about medieval concepts of authorship, the role of aurality and music in Dominican mysticism, poetic form and bridal mysticism in Netherlandish beguine texts, multilingualism in German Marian poetry, as well as the interaction of text and image in illuminated manuscripts. As a translator of medieval German, Steven has published (with Klaus Pietschmann) selections of the verse autobiography of the fifteenth-century German singer and composer Johannes von Soest. He discovered -- and with C.J. Jones edited and translated -- a medieval German meditation on the Crucifixion. He has recently completed a book on trans-Reformation English spirituality, and is currently editing The Monk's Tale and The Manciple's Tale for the Cambridge Chaucer under the general editorship of Julia Boffey and A.S.G. Edwards. His research has been supported with grants from the U.S.-U.K. Fulbright Commission, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Houghton Library, and the Folger Institute.

Research Interests

• Middle English devotional literature
• translation studies
• book history
• medieval German and Dutch literature
• trans-Reformation England