`The Index of Middle English Prose when completed will be a monumental achievement' REVIEW OF ENGLISH STUDIES Archbishop Laud was Chancellor of the University of Oxford from 1629-1641, during which period he donated over twelve thousand manuscripts to the Bodleian Library. Only a small minority of these contain Middle English prose, but they cover a wide spectrum. Religious works include eight copies of the Wycliffite New Testament, one unrecorded by printed authorities, Wycliffite sermons, writings by Rolle and Hilton, Wimbledon and Lavynham, a unique collectionof Kentish dialect sermons, Disce Mori, and copies of many other popular anonymous treatises, some previously unnoted. Among the secular works are The Brut, The Canterbury Tales, Mandeville's Travels, De Re Militari, The Pilgrimage of the Life of the Manhood, writings by Fortescue, one unique, a heraldic treatise and two extensive compilations of medical texts.S. J. OGILVIE-THOMSON was formerly lecturer in language and medieval literature at St Edmund Hall, Oxford.

A series which is "a monumental achievement" (Review of English Studies). In 1755 Richard Rawlinson bequeathed his vast collection of books and manuscripts to the Bodleian Library. The manuscripts alone numbered over 5,000, and the 167 of these which contain Middle English prose are indexed in this Handlist. These are divided fairly evenly between religious and secular texts: Rawlinson does not seem to have been interested in any particular genre; if a book was old and deemed to be of historical interest it entered his collection, either as an acquisition or a contemporary transcription. Scriptural and devotional writing is represented by copies of the New Testament, three different works by Rolle and three by Hilton, Love's Mirror, a Primer, Sacerdos Parochialis, The Chastising of God's Children, The Mirror of Our Lady, The Mirror to Lewd Men and Women, excerpts from the works of St Catherine of Siena and St Bridget of Sweden, Mirk's Festial, other sermons,Wycliffite treatises, the only English copy known of William Thorpe's Testimony, prayers, several copies of Pore Caitiff, and more. Secular and political writing includes versions of Mandeville's Travels, John Fortescue's On the Governance of England, translations of two works by Alain Chartier, and The English Conquest of Ireland. There is a rich selection of historical prose, with ten Bruts in whole or part, royal genealogies, accounts of royal weddings and of the coronation of Richard II, descriptions of court etiquette, the deposition of Richard II, the challenge for the English throne of Henry IV and his speech of acceptance. Scientific and utilitarian prose is illustrated by Chaucer's Astrolabe, grammatical treatises, alchemical writings by Lull and Ripley, medical treatises, especially urologies, and, in a lighter vein, extracts from the J.B. Treatiseon hunting and country life, as well as separate works on hawking, angling and gardening. The abundance of recipes, medical, culinary and veterinary, singly and in collection, have been treated in this Handlist in particular detail. Sarah Ogilvie-Thomson is a former lecturer in language and medieval literature at St Edmund Hall, Oxford.

Oxford college libraries house more than 2,500 Western medieval manuscripts, of which 155 contain prose writings in the vernacular; this Handlist indexes some 750 items. Major religious works include Hilton's 'Scale of Perfection', Love's 'Mirror', Rolle's 'Form of Living', the anonymous 'Cloud of Unknowing', 'Abbey of the Holy Ghost', 'Book of the Craft of Dying', 'Disce Mori', 'Lay Folks' Catechism, 'Sacerdos Parochialis', and other manuals of pastoral instruction. Chaucer, Mandeville, and Trevisa are prominent among secular authors. Historical prose includes four copies of 'The Brut', the 'Chronicles of London', and a translation of the 'Modus tenendi parliamentum'. Medical writing is well represented, and there are numerous utilitarian and scientific texts, including gardening and travel, and works on alchemy and astrology. S.J. OGILVIE-THOMPSON's published work includes editions of Walter Hilton's 'Mixed Life', and 'Richard Rolle: Prose and Verse' for the Early English Text Society.

The Yorkshireman Richard Rolle (c. 1300-1349) was the first and most immediately influential of the English medieval mystics. His writings, including the Latin, remain extant in more than four hundred manuscripts, mainly of the fifteenth century. His passionate insistence on an personal communion between Creator and created was to affect the development of pre-Reformation religious thought, and his ultimate choice of English as the vehicle in which to express his teaching, at a time when it was still a secondary language, rekindled in a modern idiom the tradition of vernacular devotional prose. This is the first full critical edition of Rolle's major English writings, excepting only his glossed Psalter. Although the manuscript chosen as a base text is not in the original Northern dialect, it is of sufficient authority to restore many readings hitherto lost or corrupt, and its inclusion of two texts outside the established canon suggests that this should now be reappraised. The introduction extends the researches of H. E. Allen on Rolle manuscripts, discusses their relationships, and examines methods of textual transmission. In the notes, much of Rolle's possible source material is cited, and the edition concludes with a select glossary.