In the book Wheatley examines fable as a mode of discourse in its medieval curricular context and then discusses the ways in which it influenced the work of Chaucer, Lydgate and Henryson.
Drawing on exhaustive study of more than 100 manuscripts and several incunables of the fables, Wheatley traces the use of the standard medieval Latin fable collection across Europe, the construction of Aesop that affected that use, and the scholastic commentaries that the collection inspired. He then describes bow the medieval understanding of Latin curricular fable exerted its influence on both the matter and the art of Chaucer and on his followers. In his study of manuscripts, Wheatley visited 30 libraries in 27 cities in seven countries. The book cover features an illustration of a woodcut from the late 1500s.
Beyond his contribution to the study of Latin influence on major vernacular writers of the English middle ages, Wheatley illuminates the curricular tradition in which they were trained and affords insights into numerous problematical issues at the heart of medieval literary study, such as the theory of translation and the nature of genre, author and text.
Wheatley is executive editor of Sources and Analogues of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and the author of essays in Studies in the Age of Chaucer, Studies in Philology and other publications.
Wheatley received his bachelor's degree from Rhodes College. He earned a master's degree from the University of York, and a master's degree and doctorate from the University of Virginia. He received an Andrew W. Mellon Faculty Fellowship in the Humanities at Harvard, and has received grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Philosophical Society.
