She has written widely on medieval literature and rhetoric, memory and mnemonic techniques, and the history of spirituality.
She holds a Ph.D. in English from Yale University (1965), and a B.A. in English from Wellesley College (1961).
Publications
Rhetoric Beyond Words: Delight and Persuasion in the Arts of the Middle Ages. ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2010.
Ars oblivionalis, ars inveniendi: The Cherub Figure and the Arts of Memory. Gesta 48 (2009): 1–19.
Varietas: a word of many colours. Poetica: Zeitschrift für Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft (Munich, Germany), Fall 2009: 33–54.
Mechanisms for the transmission of culture: the role of 'place' in the arts of memory. In Translatio, the Transmission of Culture in the Middle Ages. ed Laura Hollengreen. Arizona Studies in the Middle Ages and Renaissance (Turnhout: Brepols), 2008: 1–26.
Sweetness. Speculum 81 (2006): 999–1013.
On affliction and reading, weeping and argument: Chaucer's lachrymose Troilus in context. Representations 93 (2006): 1–21.
The Medieval Craft of Memory: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures. ed. with J. M. Ziolkowski. University of Pennsylvania Press. 2002.
The Craft of Thought: Meditation, Rhetoric. and the Making of Images. 400–1200. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1998.
The Book of Memory: A Study of Memory in Medieval Culture. New York: Cambridge University Press. 1990. (Second Ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2008.)
Acts of Interpretation: The Text in Its Contexts. 700–1600. ed. with Elizabeth D. Kirk. Norman, OK: Pilgrim Books. 1982.
The Search for St. Truth: A Study of Meaning in Piers Plowman. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. 1973.
The Wife of Bath and the Painting of Lions (essay)
