No other edition accurately represents the actual (and likely authorial) divisions of the text
as attested to by its two surviving witnesses - Caxton’s 1485 print and especially the famous
Winchester Manuscript. The Winchester Manuscript is now generally agreed to be the more
authentic of the two earlier texts. The Norton Critical Edition is the first edition of Malory
to recover important elements of this manuscript: paragraphing marginal annotations hierarchies
of narrative division as signaled by size and decorative intricacy of initial capitals and font
changes The Norton Critical Edition also represents in black-letter font the striking
rubrication of proper names in the Winchester Manuscript reconstructing for readers something
of an authentic medieval reading experience one which gives visual support to Malory’s
extraordinary representation in character and setting of a chivalric ideal. No other student
edition of Malory contains such extensive contextual and critical support.
