‘Bycause the redyng shold not turne hem to enoye’: Reading, Selectivity, and Pietatis Affectum in Late Medieval England

Abstract

Saint Anselm of Canterbury’s Orationes sive meditationes, written in the late eleventh century, influenced generations of later authors of devotional and mystical literature, and the prologue to the Orationes, in particular, was repeatedly translated and reworked by vernacular authors in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in England. This essay examines the textual and codicological contexts in which this prologue occurs in four late medieval manuscripts, and situates Anselm’s prologue within broader theoretical conversations regarding the respective values of indexical and affective modes of reading. Although selective modes of reading are at times perceived as being less sophisticated than those that engage with written works more comprehensively, the late medieval interest in translations of Anselm’s prologue indicates that reading selectively could be seen as a sophisticated method for engaging the reader’s emotions so as to propel him or her towards a more devout and pious lifestyle.