This collection of Middle English texts was assembled from works contributed by University of Michigan faculty and from texts provided by the Oxford Text Archive, as well as works created specifically for the Corpus by the HTI. The HTI is grateful for the permission of all contributors. For more information on the source of individual titles, please consult the bibliography. All texts in the archive are valid SGML documents, tagged in conformance with the TEI Guidelines, and converted to the TEI Lite DTD for wider use.

The Humanities Text Initiative intends to develop the Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse into an extensive and reliable collection of Middle English electronic texts, either by converting the texts ourselves or by negotiating access to other collections produced to specified high standards of accuracy. At present, fifty-four texts are available; several others will be added soon. HTI wants to include in the corpus all editions of Middle English texts used in the MED, and the more recent scholarly editions which in some cases may have superseded them. Large scale expansion of the Corpus will not take place until the MED and the HyperBibliography are further advanced, but text conversion continues at a modest rate as time and money permit. The Corpus is provided with a full array of search mechanisms, and texts may be searched individually, in user designated groups. or collectively.