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Art. 103, Confiteor tibi, Deus, omnia peccata mea: Introduction

Abbreviations: AND: Anglo-Norman Dictionary; ANL: Anglo-Norman Literature: A Guide to Texts and Manuscripts (R. Dean and Boulton); BL: British Library (London); Bodl.: Bodleian Library (Oxford); CT: Chaucer, Canterbury Tales; CUL: Cambridge University Library (Cambridge); DOML: Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library; FDT: French Devotional Texts of the Middle Ages (Sinclair 1979); FDT-1French Devotional Texts of the Middle Ages, . . . First Supplement (Sinclair 1982); IMEV: The Index of Middle English Verse (Brown and Robbins); MED: Middle English Dictionary; MWME: A Manual of the Writings in Middle English, 1050–1500 (Severs et al.); NIMEV: A New Index of Middle English Verse (Boffey and Edwards); NLS: National Library of Scotland (Edinburgh).

This Latin prose prayer opens with the traditional word of confession, Confiteor. Not the prayer of general confession recited at the beginning of Mass, it is instead a prayer fashioned for another purpose, perhaps for private use, as a means to prepare oneself for attending mass. It forms part of quire 15’s sequence of short prayers and occasions for psalms. Mention of the infernal angels allies it with Occasions for Angels (art. 100). Its psalmic cadences also befit its position here in the Harley manuscript. The translation is by Jan Ziolkowski.

[Fol. 134v. Scribe: B (Ludlow scribe). Quire: 15. Layout: No columns, written as prose. Edition: Hunt and Bliss, pp. 244–45. Other MSS: None. Translation: Hunt and Bliss, pp. 244–45.]

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