History

The Middle English Texts Series began operations in 1990, with the goal of expanding access to the full range of literary production in medieval England to the widest possible readership. From the outset, the Series has focused on publishing editions of writings that, despite their importance and influence, were available only in hard-to-find, highly technical specialist editions too expensive for most students and many scholars. In 1988, a collective of like-minded scholars in the field of medieval English literature took action to lower these barriers to entry: the Consortium for Teaching the Middle Ages, now known as the Teaching Association for Medieval Studies (TEAMS), established its inaugural Editorial Board that year with Professor Russell Peck as chair, and one of its first actions was to approve the formation of a publication series of medieval English texts. With this decision, the Middle English Texts Series was born. In consultation with nearly 250 scholars, METS began commissioning editions soon after, with the initial goal of publishing twenty-five scholarly and teaching texts. METS issued its first volume in 1990, with support from the University of Rochester's English Graduate Program, the School of Arts and Sciences, the newly established Rossell Hope Robbins Library, and the Medieval Institute of Western Michigan University, the home of Medieval Institute Publications (MIP). MIP thereafter accepted responsibility for about a dozen commissioned volumes. By the mid-1990s, Alan Lupack, Associate Editor of METS, had created a website for the Robbins Library’s digital projects, and this site became the platform for hosting the Series’ digital editions. With hopes of dramatically increasing the project’s scope and productivity, in 1995 METS successfully applied for a Scholarly Editions grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities; the Series has thereafter received nearly continuous support from the Endowment. Through this sponsorship, METS effectively tripled its rate of publication, publishing its one hundredth volume in 2023. In 2012 METS migrated platforms, allowing for more distinct branding of the site, as well as better abilities to archive, version control, and track usage statistics for the site. In 2023, upon the passing of Russell Peck, METS reconfigured its administrative and staffing structure, naming Anna Siebach-Larsen as Executive Director and Thomas Hahn as General Editor.

None of these achievements would have been possible without the Series’ many faculty and student staff members, organizational boards, institutional partnerships, and financial sponsors. The Series owes a profound debt of gratitude to its institutional home, the University of Rochester, and particularly the Rossell Hope Robbins Library. The Robbins Library is perhaps the most crucial component of METS’ continued success; the Series’ main office is within the Library itself, giving METS staff immediate access to the knowledge and guidance of its director, the Library’s extensive print collections, and the many resources the Library’s endowment provides, all essential to maintain the highest standards of scholarship and timely publication. The Robbins Library is part of the University of Rochester’s River Campus Libraries system, which furnishes METS with technical support, software and hardware, office supplies, and office space. The River Campus Libraries system was also instrumental in the Series’ digital redesign, including the Digital Initiatives, Digital Scholarship, and Metadata Services departments, not only providing an internal grant to support an initial but fundamental overhaul of the Series’ digital practices, but also generously funding the final stage of the Series’ digital redesign, its ongoing maintenance, and support of its digital infrastructure. Rochester’s Department of English has been essential to the success of METS since its foundation, providing the departmental home and community from which the Series has drawn most of its faculty and student staff. Medieval Institute Publications and ISD, MIP’s sales and marketing partner, have been steadfast in supporting the Series’ print publication efforts, including publishing and distributing the Series’ print editions, showcasing METS editions at academic conferences, sending out review copies to societies and journals, and promoting new titles through mailing lists, catalogues, and social media accounts.

Since its inception in 1990, the Middle English Texts Series has profoundly refashioned the teaching and study of the literatures of medieval England. Some of the most distinguished contemporary scholars have praised its impact; James Simpson, the Donald P. and Katherine B. Loker Professor of English at Harvard University, has compared the influence of METS to that of the monumental Early English Text Society, which made modern study of medieval English texts possible from the late nineteenth century onward. Building on this tradition of scholarly excellence and expanded access to medieval literature, METS has strived and succeeded in reaching an even broader demographic, in both research and teaching, through offering its beginner-friendly yet authoritative editions of medieval texts in both affordable print and open-access digital formats. In greatly expanding access to these materials, METS has not only enhanced traditional avenues of student and scholarly engagement, but also introduced new generations of readers to the vibrant, multilingual, and transnational literatures and cultures of medieval England and its neighbors from the twelfth to sixteenth centuries.