Richard Rolle: Prose and Verse from MS. Longleat 29 and related manuscripts: 293 (Early English Text Society Original Series) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0197222951 ISBN 13: 9780197222959

Publisher: Early English Text Society, 1988

Synopsis

The Yorkshireman Richard Rolle (c. 1300-1349) was the first and most immediately influential of the English medieval mystics. His writings, including the Latin, remain extant in more than four hundred manuscripts, mainly of the fifteenth century. His passionate insistence on an personal communion between Creator and created was to affect the development of pre-Reformation religious thought, and his ultimate choice of English as the vehicle in which to express his teaching, at a time when it was still a secondary language, rekindled in a modern idiom the tradition of vernacular devotional prose.

This is the first full critical edition of Rolle's major English writings, excepting only his glossed Psalter. Although the manuscript chosen as a base text is not in the original Northern dialect, it is of sufficient authority to restore many readings hitherto lost or corrupt, and its inclusion of two texts outside the established canon suggests that this should now be reappraised. The introduction extends the researches of H. E. Allen on Rolle manuscripts, discusses their relationships, and examines methods of textual transmission. In the notes, much of Rolle's possible source material is cited, and the edition concludes with a select glossary.

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Review

'the editor has made available all the textual information necessary to test her thesis that her base manuscript is textually superior to Allen's' Alexandra Barratt, Journal of Theological Studies

'Her discussion is throughout lucid, judicious, and well supported, and her arguments are altogether persuasive ... Ogilvie-Thomson's discussion, a model of exact and discriminating analysis, reaches important new conclusions. This is an excelent edition, admirable in its scholarship, and it offers a wealth of important new material.' George Jack, University of St Andrews, English Studies

'an important edition ... Rolle is clearly an important writer and an improved text of his English works is an important publication.' John Frankis, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Review of English Studies, Vol. XLI, No. 164

'The student of English mysticism and spirituality will be grateful for the arduous task the editor has undertaken' Wolfgang Riehle, ANGLIA

Synopsis

This book comprises a critical edition of the major English writings, except the glossed Psalter, of the Yorkshireman Richard Rolle (c 1300-1349), who was the first of the English medieval mystics. His belief in a personal communion between Creator and created was to affect the development of Pre-Reformation religious thought. His ultimate choice of English as the vehicle in which to express his teaching, at a time when it was still a secondary language, rekindled the tradition of vernacular devotional prose. The introduction extends the researches of H.E.Allen on Rolle manuscripts, discusses their relationships and examines methods of textual transmission.

Edition details

• Publisher: Early English Text Society
• Publication date: 1988
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0197222951
• ISBN 13: 9780197222959
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 368
• Editor: Ogilvie-Thomson S J