A Late Fifteenth-century Commonplace Book

Book excerpt: This edition presents the full text of a personal collection of temporale Middle-English sermons, compiled by a parish priest for his own use. It also includes the notes and fragments of sermons or exempla found at the beginning of the manuscript with a purpose of giving insight into the way a parish priest would compile materials. This manuscript has attracted attention because it perserves versions of these sermons' early stages. This edition is therefore complementary to editions of later versions of the same sermons. The introduction provides a discussion of these sermons' textual history and the circumstances in which they were possibly preached. This volume also includes explanatory notes and a glossary.