Writings of Julian of Norwich (06 Edition)

This book presents a much-needed new edition of Julian’s writings in Middle English, one that makes possible the serious reading and study of her thought not just for students and scholars of Middle English but also for those with little or no previous experience with the language.

• Separate texts of both Julian’s works, A Vision Showed to a Devout Woman and A Revelation of Love, with modern punctuation and paragraphing and partly regularized spelling.

• A second, analytic edition of A Vision printed underneath the text of A Revelation to show what was left out, changed, or added as Julian expanded the earlier work into the later one.

• Facing-page explanatory notes, with translations of difficult words and phrases, cross-references to other parts of the text, and citations of biblical and other sources.

• A thoroughly accessible introduction to Julian’s life and writings.

• An appendix of medieval and early modern records relating to Julian and her writings.

• An analytic bibliography of editions, translations, scholarly studies, and other works.

The most distinctive feature of this volume is the editors’ approach to the manuscripts. Middle English editions habitually retain original spellings of their base manuscript intact and only emend that manuscript when its readings make no sense. At once more interventionist and more speculative, this edition synthesizes readings from all the surviving manuscripts, with careful justification of each choice involved in this process. For readers who are not concerned with textual matters, the result will be a more readable and satisfying text. For Middle English scholars, the edition is intended both as a hypothesis and as a challenge to the assumptions the field brings to the business of editing.

acqueline Jenkins is Associate Professor of English at the University of Calgary. She co-edited St. Katherine of Alexandria: Texts and Contexts in Western Medieval Europe (2003).

CONTENTS

Preface

Acknowledgments

INTRODUCTION

Part One: On Julian and Her Writings

Part Two: On Readers of Julian’s Writings

Part Three: On Editing Julian’s Writings

Part Four: On Using This Edition

A Vision Showed to a Devout Woman

A Revelation of Love

Textual Notes

APPENDIX: RECORDS AND RESPONSES, 1394-1674

A. The Westminster Revelation (with Hugh Kempster)

B. Bequests to Julian of Norwich, 1393-1416

C. Excerpt from The Book of Margery Kempe (chapter 18)

D. The Cambrai Nuns” Margaret Gascoigne and the Upholland Manuscript

E. Serenus Cressy’s Edition of a Revelation and the Stilling fleet Controversy

Bibliography (by Amy Appleford)