Richard Rolle: On Lamentations. A Critical Edition with Translation and Commentary. Edited by Michael Van Dussen

Abstract

Richard Rolle, the early fourteenth-century hermit and mystic, is often regarded as the founding father of English medieval mysticism, particularly of works written in the vernacular. However, most of Rolle’s works were written in Latin. Interest in the Latin works, particularly in the biblical commentaries that form over half of Rolle’s output, has been developing over the last 20 years or so, but needs modern critical editions of these works to flourish. This edition of Rolle’s commentary on Lamentations is therefore welcome. The author tells us that there are four extant manuscripts: two in Oxford (in the Bodleian Library and in Corpus Christi College), one in Dublin, and, perhaps surprisingly, one in Prague. Van Dussen has also drawn on the first printed edition, published in Cologne in 1536, which appears to have come from a fifth manuscript. The variations are not extreme, arising largely from the usual scribal errors, omissions, and occasional expansions. Looking at the textual notes, the variations do not suggest any deliberate slanting of the text, which is interesting given that Van Dussen goes on to situate its circulation in the context of Reformation religious controversy.