Edinburgh University Library manuscript 93: an annotated edition of selected devotional treatises, with a survey of parallel versions

Abstract

Edinburgh University Library MS. 93 (Ed), hitherto unedited, is a collection of devotional (didactic, pastoral, meditative) treatises and Wycliffite scriptural fragments dating from the first half of the fifteenth century.

The treatises selected for editing are representative of the content, textual complexity, and biblical and patristic sources of the manuscript as a 'hole. The treatises edited are 'The Tea Commandments' (two versions); 'The Three Goods': 'The Four Errors'; 'Of Lords and Husbandmen'; 'Meditation I of St. Anselm'; and 'The Stathel of Sin'. Ed is the base text for these editions, and the critical apparatus accompanying them provides all substantive variants from all known extant copies of the treatises. The edited texts are followed by interpretative notes and biblical and patristic commentaries. The textual variation among the copies of each treatise is fully considered in a separate discussion preceding the treatise. Those treatises which were not selected for editing have been included in this thesis as transcriptions; among the transcriptions are the Emendatio Vitae) of Richard Rolle, and Wyclif's Sermon 'The Eight Blessings of Christ', and his tractate 'The Sixteen Conditions of Charity'. Thus this thesis contains, either as edited text with critical apparatus or as transcription, the entire manuscript.

In addition to the editions, transcriptions, and textual discussions„ I attempt in the general introduction to place Ed in its literary and historical context. also consider the various extant manuals of instruction and the arrangement of their texts, and I suggest, in conclusion, that for Ed there is a discernible pattern in the arrangement.

Rounding out the thesis are various appendices, one of which is a textual introduction to and edition of 'The Three Arrows' which although not in Ed is relevant to the understanding of certain aspects of Ed. I have also provided a chart of affiliated manuscripts and shared treatises.