Period M3 (1350-1420)

Chaucer

File: cmctmeli.m3

The Tale of Melibee

Text: Benson, L.D. (ed.), The Riverside Chaucer, Third Edition, (Boston, 1987), pp. 217-239.

The Parson's Tale

File: cmctpars.m3

Text: Benson, L.D. (ed.), The Riverside Chaucer, Third Edition, (Boston, 1987), pp. 288-327.

A Treatise on the Astrolabe

File: cmastro.m3

Text: Benson, L.D. (ed.), The Riverside Chaucer, Third Edition, (Boston, 1987), pp. 662.C1.1-673.C2.7.

Spelling is based on Bodley 619.

Boethius

File: cmboeth.m3

Text: Benson, L.D. (ed.), The Riverside Chaucer, Third Edition, (Boston, 1987), pp. 429.C1.1-431.C1.195, 431.C2.1-434.C1.250, 434.C2.1-436.C2.230, 446.C2.1-449.C2.300, 450.C2.1-454.C2.376.

The Equatorie of the Planets

File: cmequato.m3

This treatise describes the construction and use of an instrument called an equatorium planetarum used for calculating the positions of the planets. It is derived from a Latin version of an unknown Arabic treatise. The Latin treatise may have been written by Simon Bredon, an astronomer at Merton College who died in 1372. Price ascribes the work to Chaucer and gives evidence that it is a Chaucer holograph, although as he notes the evidence is not conclusive. Robinson, editor of The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, was not convinced and did not include The Equatorie in his collection. Further evidence either for or against Chaucerian authorship has not been forthcoming. If not written by Chaucer, the treastise was written by a contemporary Londoner (Benson p.xxvii).

Text: Price, D.J., The Equatorie of the Planets, (Cambridge, 1955), pp. 18.1-44.39.

English Wycliffite Sermons

File: cmwycser.m3

The sermons are taken from a cycle of 294 sermons which provides sermons for an entire ecclesiastical year. The sermons are based on the appropriate gospel or epistle for the day and usually include a full English translation of the set text. Sample includes Sermons 1-45 (45 is incomplete) from the Sermons on the Gospels, and Sermons 1, 11, 27 and 40 from the Sermons on the Epistles .

Text: Hudson, Anne (ed.), English Wycliffite Sermons, (Oxford, 1983), pp.223-425, 475-480, 521-524, 588-592, 643-647

Purvey's Prologue to the Bible

File: cmpurvey.m3

John Purvey was Wycliffe's secretary and "glossator". He was probably born around 1354 in Lathbury (one mile north of Newport Pagnell, about 5 miles south of Olney). He was ordained priest in 1377 and was a great scholar. From 1382 he lived with Wycliffe at Lutterworth, and after Wycliffe's death in 1384, at Bristol. He is probably the author of the General Prologue and is generally believed to be a leader in the revising of the Early Version of the Wycliffite Bible which resulted in the Late Version (see The New Testament (Wycliffite) below).

Text: Forshall, J. and F. Madden (eds.), The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments, with the Apocryphal Books, in the Earliest English Versions Made from the Latin Vulgate by John Wycliffe and his Followers, Vol. 1 (Oxford, 1850, reprinted 1982).

The New Testament (Wycliffite)

File: cmntest.m3

The revision of the Wycliffite Bible which resulted in the Late Version was probably led by, if not done by, by John Purvey. See Purvey's General Prologue to the Bible above.

Text: Forshall, J. and F. Madden (eds.), The New Testament in English according to the Version of John Wycliffe about A.D.1380 and Revised by John Purvey about A.D. 1388, (Oxford, 1879). Sample: John I.1-XI.56

The Old Testament (Wycliffite)

File: cmotest.m3

The revision of the Wycliffite Bible which resulted in the Late Version was probably led by, if not done by, by John Purvey. See Purvey's General Prologue to the Bible above.

Text: Forshall, J. and F. Madden (eds.), The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments, with the Apocraphal Books, in the Earliest English Versions Made from the Latin Vulgate by John Wycliffe and his Followers, Vol. 1, (Oxford, 1850). Samples: Genesis I.1-III.24, VI.1-IX.29,XII.1-XIV.20, XXII.1-XXII.19, Numbers XIII.1-XIV.45, XVI.1-XVII.13.

The Cloud of Unknowing

File: cmcloud.m3

The author of these works was certainly a priest but little else is known about him with certainty, except that he also wrote The Book of Privy Counselling, The Epistle of Prayer, and The epistle of Discretion in Stirrings. He may also have written Of Discerning of Spirits, Denis Hid Divinity, and Benjamin Minor. The language of the mss. suggests a Central North-East Midlands provenance. The mss. are difficult to date exactly but Hodgson places the Cloud between Rolle (1349) and Hilton (1395).

Text: Hodgson, P. (ed.), The Cloud of Unknowing and the Book of Privy Counselling, EETS OS 218, (London, 1944, 1958).

The Brut or The Chronicles of England

File: cmbrut3.m3

This chronicle with its continuations covers the period from the mythical Albina and Brutus to 1479 CE. The first part (up to 1333) from which the sample is taken is a translation of the French Brut d'Engleterre.

Text: Brie, F.W.D., The Brut or The Chronicles of England, Part I, EETS OS 131, London (1960, 1906), pp. 1-128, 217-228.

The Polychronicon (John of Trevisa)

File: cmpolych.m3

John of Trevisa was born in Cornwall. He was a fellow of Exeter College (1362-1369) and Queen's College, Oxford. He was vicar of a parish in Berkeley and a canon in Gloucestershire. He died at Berkely in 1412. The Polychronicon is a translation of Ranulph (or Ralph) Higden's Latin work of the same name. Trevisa translated it at the direction of Sir Thomas of Berkeley and finished it in 1387. It is a fairly literal translation and only occasionally contains original explanations of the text.

Text: Lumby, J.R. (ed.), Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden, Monachi Cestrensis, Vols. VI, VIII, English Translations of John Trevisa and of an Unknown Writer of the Fifteenth Century. Rolls Series 41, (London, 1876, 1882), Book VI pp. 3-477, Book VIII pp. 83-111, 347-352.

Mandeville's Travels

File: cmmandev.m3

Mandeville's Travels is an anonymous translation of a French work written by Jehan de Bourgogne in 1356-7 under the penname of Sir John Mandeville. The work is based on authentic travelogues, (Guiollaume de Boldensele (1336) and Odoric de Pordenone (1330)) but is essentially a work of fiction. The translator writes very good English, but often misunderstands the French text. For an example of the French text, see Mossé, p. 277-279 (from Ms. Harley 4383).

Text: Hamelius, P. (ed.), Mandeville's Travels, Translated from the French of Jean D'Outremeuse, EETS OS 153, (London, 1919), 1-132, 140-145.

A Late Middle English Treatise on Horses

File: cmhorses.m3

Text: Svinhufvud, A.C. (ed.), A Late Middle English Treatise on Horses, Stockholm Studies in English XLVII, (Stockholm, 1978), pp.85-129.

The Mirror of St. Edmund (Vernon Ms.)

File: cmedvern.m3

A version of the Latin Speculum S. Edmundi. It is a closer rendering of the Latin than the Thornton Ms. version of the same text, also included in the corpus. This text is not included in the Helsinki Corpus.

Text: Horstman, C. (ed.), Yorkshire Writers: Richard Rolle of Hampole, Swan Sonnenschein & Co. (New York, 1895), pp. 240-261.

The Northern Prose Rule of St. Benet

File: cmbenrul.m3

This manuscript represents the earliest extensive Northern prose. According to Kock it is not a close translation of the Latin rule.

Text: Kock, Ernst A., The Northern Prose Version of The Rule of St. Benet. in Three Middle-English Versions of the Rule of St. Benet and Two Contemporary Rituals for the Ordination of Nuns, EETS OS 120, pp.1-47, London (1902).

A Latin Technical Phlebotomy

File:

Text: Voigts, L.E. and M.R. McVaugh (eds.), A Latin Technical Phlebotomy and Its Middle English Translation, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 74, Part 2, (Philadelphia, 1984).