A Mirror to devout people (Speculum devotorum) / edited by Paul J. Patterson.

Oxford : Published for the Early English Text Society by the Oxford University Press, 2016 for 2015.

liv, 252 pages, [1] leaf of plates : facsimiles ; 23 cm

Early English Text Society ; O.S. 346

This volume presents for the first time a Middle English Life of Christ, with additional religious advice, written in the early fifteenth century by a Carthusian monk at the Sheen Charterhouse for a nun at the nearby Bridgettine Syon Abbey. Both the Sheen Charterhouse and Syon were recent royal foundations, established by Henry V. The Mirror is an important example of the devotional works produced to satisfy demand among laity as well as professed religious, wanting to read lives of Christ in the years following the repressive legislation of Archbishop Arundel (1409), which placed severe restrictions on biblical translation into English, intended to limit the spread of heresy. The Mirror, written in the tradition of the highly successful translation by another Carthusian, Nicholas Love, of Pseudo-Bonaventure's life of Christ, testifies to the demand for such material in pious households.

Text in Middle English followed by the prayer 'O Intemerata' in Latin; introduction, notes and commentary in English.

Includes glossary (pages [219]-235).

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Early English Text Society (Series). Original series ; no. 346.

Great Britain -- England.

PR1119 .A2 no.346

130698