The Index Of Middle English Prose Handlist Xxiv

Handlist to manuscripts in Trinity College Dublin, covering all 79 Middle English prose manuscripts and indexing more than 539 separate items The manuscripts in Trinity College Dublin are predominantly from the library of Archbishop James Ussher (1581-1656). A well-known bibliophile of the sixteenth century, he was also primate of All Ireland and fellow and professor of Trinity College. Following some movement of the collection, it was eventually returned to Trinity College after the Restoration, at the behest of Charles II. It is a significant collection, both in national and international terms, with over 600 manuscripts, 79 of which contain Middle English prose. Among the manuscripts in the collection are several Wycliffite Bibles, and collections of sermons and tracts, some of them unique copies. The collection also contains writings by Richard Rolle, Walter Hilton and William Flete, and copies of Thomas à Kempis's Imitation of Christ, as well as the Pore Caitif and The Cloud of Unknowing, both of which are anonymous. There are several copies of the Brut chronicle, two of which (MSS 489 and 505) are illuminated, translations of Giraldus Cambrensis's Expugnacio Hibernica, and a copy of Robert Bale's Chronicle of London, 1189-1461. Also of note are the various collections of recipes - medical, culinary and alchemical. Dictionary-style items demonstrate the trilingual nature of the Medieval period, with single words being offered in English alongside Anglo-Norman and/or Latin words, or as marginal glosses. Fifteenth-century instructions for the coronation of a King or Queen, hidden among some later material, as well as other unidentified heraldic pieces, suggest that some of the manuscripts may be associated with the office of the Ulster King of Arms. The current handlist covers 79 manuscripts, and indexes more than 539 separate items, offering a significant contribution to the understanding of the cultural world of the Medieval period.

The Index of Middle English Prose when completed will be a monumental achievement' REVIEW OF ENGLISH STUDIES

This volume contains indexes to a university library, a monastic library, two cathedral libraries, a diocesan library and three record offices. Outstanding among the manuscripts are two Wycliffite New Testaments and John Mirk's popular sermon collection 'The Festial'.

A catalogue of Middle English texts, largely relating to heraldry and the sciences of the time.

Published by Boydell & Brewer Inc.

The Library of Trinity College, Cambridge, contains the largest collection of medieval manuscripts of any college in Great Britain, and one of the most important collections in the world. The subjects contained therein cover the whole range of topics usual to medieval manuscripts, with the single bias being that the majority were produced in Britain. Particularly noteworthy are Wycliffite translations of the Bible, sermons, and Wycliffite tracts; three manuscripts containing Nicholas Love's 'Mirror of the Blessed Lif of Ihesu Crist'; and major collections of devotional texts. Trinity is also rich in medieval scientific manuscripts, many of which came through Roger Gale's interest in this field; they include a number of large medical manuscripts whose compilers were apparently trying to bring together much of the current knowledge of the day, from tracts by such men as John of Arderne and Gilbertus Angelicus, with recipes for treatments, under a single cover. The collection also contains major compilations of alchemical tracts; historical and legal material; and unique Middle English translations of classical and early medieval texts. Finally, a number of known Middle English texts not previously thought to be in the Trinity Collection are identified, opening new areas for study of Trinity's manuscripts, especially the medical and scientific texts which have much to tell of scientific learning in England in the later middle ages. LINNE R. MOONEY is Associate Professor of English at the University of Maine (and a former graduate of the Center for Medieval Studies at Toronto).

The Parisian manuscript collections checked for the compilation of this handlist are the Bibliotheque Nationale, the Bibliotheque Mazarine and the Bibliotheque Sainte Genevieve. They contain a miscellaneous but interesting set of Middle English prose texts: there is the Middle English version of Guy de Chauliac's 'Cyrurgie'; a 'Brut'; four miscellanies of religious matter, including a 'Pore Caitif' and a 'Lay Folks' Catechism', as well as texts by Rolle and Hilton. There is also Julian of Norwich's Showings, and the polemical Twelve Conclusions of the Lollards.

Latest volume in a series which is a monumental achievement (Review of English Studies)