Jonathan H. Hsy

Counting House


In this fourteenth-century illustration, one merchant (center) speaks with a nobleman, while another writes accounts into a book. 

Image detail from British Library Additional MS 27695, fol. 7v.



Research and Teaching:

I specialize in late medieval literature, and my research and teaching interests include Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gower, and their contemporaries; medieval romance; sociolinguistics; and material culture. My current research investigates multilingualism and commerce in medieval England and France, but my interests extend into later fields and periods, including early print culture, postcolonial theory, and the history of the English language. I am currently working on a book on merchants and literary production in medieval London.

Online Work:

  • Geoffrey Chaucer Chronology. My website includes a chronology of Chaucer's life and times, as well as a companion site to this timeline. These sites are works-in-progress, and I invite corrections, comments, or suggestions.
  • John Gower Website. This page dedicated to the life, work, and times of Gower is also a work-in-progress. I hope it is useful to other people interested in this poet.

Last updated: 22 December 2007