This work is published in memory of Thomas Frank, Chair of History of the English Language at the University of Naples, 1982 to 1990. It includes studies in the history of the English language; studies in the history of language and linguistics; and studies on history in literary texts.

1. Part I: Thomas Frank: Appraisals of his Life and Work; 2. Thomas Frank, 1925-1990 (by Koerner, E.F.K.); 3. Thomas Frank in the Neapolitan Environment (by Sornicola, Rosanna); 4. Honoring Thomas Frank: Introduction and Overview of the Contributions (by Sornicola, Rosanna); 5. Part II: Studies in the History of the English Language; 6. Grammaticalisation, Textuality and Subjectivity: The Progressive and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (by Fitzmaurice, Susan); 7. The Language of 'wit' in Piers Plowman (by Pantaleo, Nicola); 8. Relative Sentences in late Middle English: The Paston and the Cely Letters (by Stein, Dieter); 9. Part III: Studies in the History of Language and Linguistics; 10. The Interpretation of Historical Sources as a Problem for Diachronic Typology: Word-order in English Rhetorical and Grammatical Treatises of the XVIth and Early XVIIth Centuries (by Sornicola, Rosanna); 11. The 'new science' and the New Language in Seventeenth Century England (by Martino, Gabriella di); 12. Otto Jespersen as a Reader of the Cours de Linguistique Generale (by Koerner, E.F.K.); 13. Part IV: Studies on History in Literary Texts; 14. Macbeth and the Implied Director (by Manferlotti, Stefano); 15. Sir Thomas Elyot's The Image of Governance: A Humanist's Speculum Principis and a Literary Puzzle (by Baumann, Uwe); 16. The Union of England and Scotland Represented at Court in Ben Jonson's Hymenaei (1606) (by Palombi Cataldi, Anna Maria); 17. "How-to" Literature: A Comparison of Some Texts on Childbirth (by Hart, David); 18. General Index