Reading the Tied Letters of Cotton Nero A.x.

This article investigates the relationship between the script and literary language of British Library, MS Cotton Nero A.x., focusing on the poems Pearl, Cleanness, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. It argues that the manuscript’s penmanship, identified as a form of the Gothic script textualis, is integrally connected to the poems’ aesthetic and thematic concerns, particularly through the concept of “tied letters” (“tede lettres”) in Cleanness, which metaphorically links the visual form of writing to divine transcendence. The article demonstrates how the manuscript’s script and the poetry share a common aesthetic that uses material intricacy—seen in script, adornment, and imagery—to evoke immaterial spiritual ideals. This interconnection extends beyond textual description to the manuscript’s illustrations and broader medieval practices, suggesting that the script itself offers an interpretive reading of the poems rather than merely serving as a neutral vehicle for text.