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We will continue to publish all new editions in print and online, but our new online editions will include TEI/XML markup and other features. Over the next two years, we will be working on updating our legacy volumes to conform to our new standards.
Our current site will be available for use until mid-December 2024. After that point, users will be redirected to the new site. We encourage you to update bookmarks and syllabuses over the next few months. If you have questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact us at robbins@ur.rochester.edu.
Art. 1, Vitas Patrum: Introduction
ABBREVIATIONS: AND: Anglo-Norman Dictionary; ANL: Anglo-Norman Literature: A Guide to Texts and Manuscripts (R. Dean and Boulton); BL: British Library (London); BnF: Bibliothèque nationale de France (Paris); CUL: Cambridge University Library; MED: Middle English Dictionary; NLW: National Library of Wales (Aberystwyth); PL: Patrologiae cursus completus . . . series latina (Migne).
Before the Ludlow scribe initiated his project of trilingual compilation — a project that eventually tripled the length of MS Harley 2253 — he owned two booklets of Anglo-Norman religious narrative. Volume 1 presents for the first time an edition and translation of the contents of these booklets.
Booklets 1–2 may have already been joined when the Ludlow scribe acquired them, for both display the same neat textura script written by Scribe A and the same dimensions. The folios and rulings are larger here than in the more compact pages found in the Ludlow scribe’s other manuscripts (London, BL MS Harley 273 and MS Royal 12.C.12). Although the texts are complete, these booklets are technically unfinished, for Scribe A omitted decorative details: there are no paraphs, no large initials, no touches of red ink. When the Ludlow scribe acquired the booklets, he may have intended to rubricate them himself. To each text he attached a title in red ink. He also added just a few paraphs and enlarged initials, but mostly he left that job unfinished. Another hand, presumably a later one, filled in a large number of Scribe A’s blank spaces with crude, sometimes erroneous initials (as detailed in the textual notes).
BOOKLET 1
VITAS PATRUM / THE LIVES OF THE FATHERS [ART. 1]
The 4,165-line Lives of the Fathers occupies the whole of booklet 1 (fols. 1–22) aside from a short piece at the end that serves as a coda. This brief item (art. 1a) recounts the story of Thais, a redeemed courtesan. Both pieces are products of the same poet and are drawn from the same general source. The author translates the Latin Verba seniorum, which is a portion of the longer Vitae patrum, into alexandrine couplets. This broad source, the Vitae patrum, is an assemblage of sage sayings and exempla attributed to the ancient Desert Fathers, and associated with it are saints’ lives that include those of Thais and Marina (compare art. 32). The “Fathers” of the title are “those ascetics who, during the period 250–500 A.D., laid the foundations of Christian monachism in the deserts of Egypt” (O’Connor, p. xi).
The Lives of the Fathers found in Harley 2253 is allied with a second copy found in Paris, BnF MS français 24862. Taken together, these two redactions preserve 6,918 lines of a long work created by an important Anglo-Norman translator. Viewed individually, each manuscript relays a different selection from the original French whole. The two medieval compilers created two unique versions. Comparing them, one finds much overlap as well as much divergence. The Harley version has 4,165 lines; Paris has 4,863 lines. They share 2,110 lines. The basic structure and nature of each compilation have not been given much critical attention. The Paris version was edited in 1949 by Br. Basilides Andrew O’Connor. At the end of his edition, O’Connor prints the 2,055 lines unique to Harley (pp. 160–224). Because of this method, the Harley version was not printed in full or in sequence. Consequently, the present edition displays the Harley version for the first time.
Four works have been ascribed to the poet. Besides The Lives of the Fathers, they are The Story of Thais (art. 1a), Antichrist (ANL 584), and The Vision of Saint Paul. (ANL 554). Composed in the same meter, the four are all preserved in the Paris manuscript. O’Connor believed the poet to be Henri d’Arci, a twelfth-century Templar and likely descendent of a baronial Lincolnshire family. But recent scholarship has shown that the poet was not Henri. Instead, Henri was the poet’s patron. According to Keith Sinclair, the author was an anonymous London priest or Austin canon who undertook, c. 1170–1180, the vernacular translation-abridgment of the Latin Vitae patrum for the edification of Henri d’Arci’s “illiterate brethren of the Temple” (1997, p. 762), that is, Temple Bruer near Lincoln. On the authorship question and the three other works by this anonymous poet, see Perman, pp. 279–321. The Harley Lives of the Fathers consists of a 20-line introduction rhyming on one sound, followed by 131 sections of varying length. These sections contain 66 exempla, that is, illustrative stories or moral similes. Sections follow a typical pattern of imparting a saying or moral wisdom from an abbot father to an enquiring young monk. In this edition, sections are keyed by number in the right margin to the ten-volume edition by the Jesuit Heribert Rosweyde (1628), printed in PL, volumes 73, 74, and 21 (columns 387–426). The Anglo-Norman poet has drawn mainly from Books 5 and 6 of this source. For a convenient table of contents, along with substantial portions of the Latin version translated into English prose, see Baker (available online). In the text as a whole, there exists a sense of sequential order — derived from the source but also subject to some shaping by the compiler — which is particularly evident in how the work ends: an account of how souls are extracted postmortem from the wicked versus the virtuous (lines 4082–4165). The compiler’s choice of this passage delivers a suitable close in heavenly bliss, with dulcet angel song and harping by David. The table below presents an outline of the Harley version.
Helpful background is also provided in The Lives of the Desert Fathers, trans. N. Russell, and The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, trans. Ward. The latter is a medieval arrangement of many Latin sayings according to the alphabet, keyed to the abbots’ names. Correspondent sections and abbots’ names in Ward are listed in the explanatory notes below.
[Fols. 1ra–21vb. ANL 583. Scribe: A, with title inserted by B (Ludlow scribe). Quires: 1–2. Initials: Scribe A left spaces for large initials throughout the text; Scribe B inserts a few on fol. 1ra (see textual notes). Meter: Alexandrine (i.e., twelve-syllable) lines in couplets. The prologue (lines 1–20) has one rhyme. The first section (lines 21–32) rhymes in quatrains. Layout: Two columns. Editions: Meyer 1895, pp. 160–67 (lines 1–194); O’Connor, pp. 160–224 (passages not in the Paris MS). Other MS: Paris, BnF MS français 24862, fols. 60rb–97va (ed. O’Connor, pp. 1–160; ed. Meyer 1895, pp. 140–46 [extract]). Latin Source: Vitae patrum, Books 5–7 (PL 73; trans. Baker). Middle English Analogues: See Rosenthal, passim. Translations : None.]
OUTLINE OF THE HARLEY 2253 VERSION OF THE LIVES OF THE FATHERS
Go To Art. 1, Vitas Patrum
Before the Ludlow scribe initiated his project of trilingual compilation — a project that eventually tripled the length of MS Harley 2253 — he owned two booklets of Anglo-Norman religious narrative. Volume 1 presents for the first time an edition and translation of the contents of these booklets.
Booklets 1–2 may have already been joined when the Ludlow scribe acquired them, for both display the same neat textura script written by Scribe A and the same dimensions. The folios and rulings are larger here than in the more compact pages found in the Ludlow scribe’s other manuscripts (London, BL MS Harley 273 and MS Royal 12.C.12). Although the texts are complete, these booklets are technically unfinished, for Scribe A omitted decorative details: there are no paraphs, no large initials, no touches of red ink. When the Ludlow scribe acquired the booklets, he may have intended to rubricate them himself. To each text he attached a title in red ink. He also added just a few paraphs and enlarged initials, but mostly he left that job unfinished. Another hand, presumably a later one, filled in a large number of Scribe A’s blank spaces with crude, sometimes erroneous initials (as detailed in the textual notes).
BOOKLET 1
VITAS PATRUM / THE LIVES OF THE FATHERS [ART. 1]
The 4,165-line Lives of the Fathers occupies the whole of booklet 1 (fols. 1–22) aside from a short piece at the end that serves as a coda. This brief item (art. 1a) recounts the story of Thais, a redeemed courtesan. Both pieces are products of the same poet and are drawn from the same general source. The author translates the Latin Verba seniorum, which is a portion of the longer Vitae patrum, into alexandrine couplets. This broad source, the Vitae patrum, is an assemblage of sage sayings and exempla attributed to the ancient Desert Fathers, and associated with it are saints’ lives that include those of Thais and Marina (compare art. 32). The “Fathers” of the title are “those ascetics who, during the period 250–500 A.D., laid the foundations of Christian monachism in the deserts of Egypt” (O’Connor, p. xi).
The Lives of the Fathers found in Harley 2253 is allied with a second copy found in Paris, BnF MS français 24862. Taken together, these two redactions preserve 6,918 lines of a long work created by an important Anglo-Norman translator. Viewed individually, each manuscript relays a different selection from the original French whole. The two medieval compilers created two unique versions. Comparing them, one finds much overlap as well as much divergence. The Harley version has 4,165 lines; Paris has 4,863 lines. They share 2,110 lines. The basic structure and nature of each compilation have not been given much critical attention. The Paris version was edited in 1949 by Br. Basilides Andrew O’Connor. At the end of his edition, O’Connor prints the 2,055 lines unique to Harley (pp. 160–224). Because of this method, the Harley version was not printed in full or in sequence. Consequently, the present edition displays the Harley version for the first time.
Four works have been ascribed to the poet. Besides The Lives of the Fathers, they are The Story of Thais (art. 1a), Antichrist (ANL 584), and The Vision of Saint Paul. (ANL 554). Composed in the same meter, the four are all preserved in the Paris manuscript. O’Connor believed the poet to be Henri d’Arci, a twelfth-century Templar and likely descendent of a baronial Lincolnshire family. But recent scholarship has shown that the poet was not Henri. Instead, Henri was the poet’s patron. According to Keith Sinclair, the author was an anonymous London priest or Austin canon who undertook, c. 1170–1180, the vernacular translation-abridgment of the Latin Vitae patrum for the edification of Henri d’Arci’s “illiterate brethren of the Temple” (1997, p. 762), that is, Temple Bruer near Lincoln. On the authorship question and the three other works by this anonymous poet, see Perman, pp. 279–321. The Harley Lives of the Fathers consists of a 20-line introduction rhyming on one sound, followed by 131 sections of varying length. These sections contain 66 exempla, that is, illustrative stories or moral similes. Sections follow a typical pattern of imparting a saying or moral wisdom from an abbot father to an enquiring young monk. In this edition, sections are keyed by number in the right margin to the ten-volume edition by the Jesuit Heribert Rosweyde (1628), printed in PL, volumes 73, 74, and 21 (columns 387–426). The Anglo-Norman poet has drawn mainly from Books 5 and 6 of this source. For a convenient table of contents, along with substantial portions of the Latin version translated into English prose, see Baker (available online). In the text as a whole, there exists a sense of sequential order — derived from the source but also subject to some shaping by the compiler — which is particularly evident in how the work ends: an account of how souls are extracted postmortem from the wicked versus the virtuous (lines 4082–4165). The compiler’s choice of this passage delivers a suitable close in heavenly bliss, with dulcet angel song and harping by David. The table below presents an outline of the Harley version.
Helpful background is also provided in The Lives of the Desert Fathers, trans. N. Russell, and The Sayings of the Desert Fathers, trans. Ward. The latter is a medieval arrangement of many Latin sayings according to the alphabet, keyed to the abbots’ names. Correspondent sections and abbots’ names in Ward are listed in the explanatory notes below.
[Fols. 1ra–21vb. ANL 583. Scribe: A, with title inserted by B (Ludlow scribe). Quires: 1–2. Initials: Scribe A left spaces for large initials throughout the text; Scribe B inserts a few on fol. 1ra (see textual notes). Meter: Alexandrine (i.e., twelve-syllable) lines in couplets. The prologue (lines 1–20) has one rhyme. The first section (lines 21–32) rhymes in quatrains. Layout: Two columns. Editions: Meyer 1895, pp. 160–67 (lines 1–194); O’Connor, pp. 160–224 (passages not in the Paris MS). Other MS: Paris, BnF MS français 24862, fols. 60rb–97va (ed. O’Connor, pp. 1–160; ed. Meyer 1895, pp. 140–46 [extract]). Latin Source: Vitae patrum, Books 5–7 (PL 73; trans. Baker). Middle English Analogues: See Rosenthal, passim. Translations : None.]
OUTLINE OF THE HARLEY 2253 VERSION OF THE LIVES OF THE FATHERS
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