What were the boundaries between "official" and "subversive", "orthodox" and "dissenting" in the literary theory of the Middle Ages? This collection of new essays by major scholars examines medieval critical practices in relation to questions of orthodoxy and dissent within and between Latin and vernacular cultures. Specific topics include medieval teaching, theories of grammar and rhetoric, poetics and interpretation, academic "sciences", clerical professionalism, literacy, visual images, theology, and heresy.