Bibliography
The bibliography has its own category (two-thirds of box 9; 0.67 linear foot). When Kurath arrived in 1946, he found the MED bibliographical apparatus quite inadequate, and during the next three years editors Margaret Ogden, Charles Palmer, and Richard McKelvey systematized and regularized the short titles used for citing texts and reviewed the dates of all manuscripts quoted. Whenever the evidence for dating was inconclusive or opinions by paleographers and editors varied or clashed, the keepers of manuscripts in the various repositories were consulted before the final dates were set. Their replies make up a large part of this category.