Accessus ad auctorem: The Case of John Wyclif

Abstract

"Accessus ad auctorem: The Case of John Wyclif," John Wyclif, the radical English philosopher and theologian of the late fourteenth century, wrote a large number of texts, many of them of considerable length. To facilitate access to these works a number of tools were produced very soon after Wyclifs lifetime both in England and in Bohemia. Chapter by chapter summaries, various modes of index, and a list of biblical passages discussed within Wyclifs texts are all found. Study of these tools reveals a process of trial and improvement in their making, as well as a comprehensiveness and efficiency hard to achieve in a period of manual copying. This study investigates the evidence that survives for these tools, assesses their origin and possible models, and suggests how Bohemian disciples of Wyclif extended and refined ideas that were initiated in England.