Nicholas Watson
Nicholas Watson is Claire Fanger's collaborator on the critical Latin edition of John of Morigny's Liber florum celestis doctrine (Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2015), and co-discoverer with her of a complete New Compilation manuscript in Canada in the early 1990s — a find made independently of, and roughly contemporaneous with, Sylvie Barnay's separate discovery in France (Rewriting Magic, p.21). Fanger's preface to Rewriting Magic describes him as "longtime friend, reader, listener, and sparring partner, who in many ways — some more annoying than others — always pushed me to read more deeply, see more clearly, learn more thoroughly, and write more accurately," adding that the book "would not have been possible without him" (Rewriting Magic, p.xiii).
Watson wrote "John the Monk's Book of Visions of the Blessed and Undefiled Virgin Mary, Mother of God: Two Anonymous Reworkings, and Oswald de Corda," the essay in Fanger's edited Conjuring Spirits (Penn State UP, 1998) that first announced the modern rediscovery of John's text to the scholarly field — this essay itself was not available to this portal's author, so its specific claims are cited here only by title, via Rewriting Magic's own cross-references, and not independently verified.
Watson also authored "Introduction A" to the Fanger–Watson critical edition, which Fanger's 2015 preface cites directly for background on John's likely location at Orléans (Rewriting Magic, p.xi, note to §8) — confirming Watson's role in the edition extends to substantial original biographical and contextual argument, not just textual apparatus.
This portal's author was not able to confirm Watson's specific institutional affiliation from the sources read; general scholarly reputation places him at Harvard University, but that detail is deliberately left unstated in the card above pending direct confirmation, per this portal's confidence discipline.
Literature
- Fanger, Claire, and Nicholas Watson, eds. John of Morigny, Liber florum celestis doctrine. PIMS, 2015.
- Watson, Nicholas. "John the Monk's Book of Visions..." In Fanger, ed., Conjuring Spirits. Penn State University Press, 1998. [not directly read for this portal]
Literature
- Fanger, Claire. Rewriting Magic. Penn State University Press, 2015.