The Bible was translated into English for the first time in the late 1300s by John Wyclif and his supporters. In the first study of the Wycliffite Bible for nearly a century, Mary Dove explains why people wanted an English translation, why many clergy opposed the idea, and why the church’s attempt to censor the translation was unsuccessful. Based on intensive study of the surviving manuscripts, Dove takes the reader through every step of the conception, design and execution of the first English Bible. Illuminating examples are included at every point, and textual analyses and a complete list of surviving manuscripts are appended. Despite the meagre and inadequate resources with which the Wycliffites carried through their enormous enterprise, and the disagreements and changes of direction it involved, Dove demonstrates that the first English Bible initiated a tradition of scholarly, stylish and thoughtful biblical translation, and remains a major cultural landmark.
MARY DOVE is Reader in English at the University of Sussex.
General editor
Alastair Minnis, Ohio State University
Editorial board
Zygmunt G. Bara ski, University of Cambridge
Christopher C. Baswell, University of California, Los Angeles
John Burrow, University of Bristol
Mary Carruthers, New York University
Rita Copeland, University of Pennsylvania
Simon Gaunt, King’s College, London
Steven Kruger, City University of New York
Nigel Palmer, University of Oxford
Winthrop Wetherbee, Cornell University
Jocelyn Wogan-Browne, University of York
This series of critical books seeks to cover the whole area of literature written in the major medieval languages – the main European vernaculars, and medieval Latin and Greek – during the period c.1100–1500. Its chief aim is to publish and stimulate fresh scholarship and criticism on medieval literature, special emphasis being placed on understanding major works of poetry, prose, and drama in relation to the contemporary culture and learning which fostered them.
Recent titles in the series
Ralph Hanna, London Literature, 1300–1380
Maura Nolan, John Lydgate and the Making of Public Culture
Nicolette Zeeman Piers Plowman and the Medieval Discourse of Desire
Anthony Bale The Jew in the Medieval Book: English Antisemitisms 1300–1500
Robert J. Meyer-Lee Poets and Power from Chaucer to Wyatt
Isabel Davis Writing Masculinity in the Later Middle Ages
John M. Fyler Language and the Declining World in Chaucer, Dante and Jean de Meun
Matthew Giancarlo Parliament and Literature in Late Medieval England
D. H. Green Women Readers in the Middle Ages
A complete list of titles in the series can be found at the end of the volume.
Mary Dove
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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Cambridge University Press
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Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
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Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521880282
© Mary Dove 2007
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without
the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 2007
Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-0-521-88028-2 hardback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or
accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred
to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such
websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
| List of illustrations | page vi | ||
| Acknowledgments | viii | ||
| Abbreviations | x | ||
| List of manuscript sigla | xiv | ||
| Introduction | 1 | ||
| 1 | The Bible debate | 6 | |
| 2 | Censorship | 37 | |
| 3 | The translators | 68 | |
| 4 | The canonical scriptures | 83 | |
| 5 | The English prologues | 103 | |
| 6 | The text | 137 | |
| 7 | The effects | 189 | |
| Appendix 1 Contents of the Wycliffite Bible | 199 | ||
| Appendix 2 Additions and select emendations to Forshall and Madden’s edition of the Wycliffite Bible | 210 | ||
| Appendix 3 Textual scholarship: select readings | 222 | ||
| Appendix 4 Descriptions of select Wycliffite Bible manuscripts | 235 | ||
| Select bibliography | 267 | ||
| Index of manuscripts of the Wycliffite Bible | 281 | ||
| General index | 307 |
| 1 | Initial at the opening of Matthew, John Rylands Library Eng. 77, fol. 16v. London (?), c. 1400. Reproduced by courtesy of the John Rylands University Library, the University of Manchester. | Page 48 | |
| 2 | The ‘licence’ in John Rylands Library Eng. 77, fol. 267v. Reproduced by courtesy of the John Rylands University Library, the University of Manchester. | 49 | |
| 3 | Opening of the Lectionary in Cambridge University Library Dd. 1. 27, fol. 420r. London (?), c. 1430. Reproduced by permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library. | 60 | |
| 4 | Opening of a comes (missal lectionary), British Library Harley 1710, fol. 2r. East Midlands (?), c. 1390–1400. Reproduced by permission of the British Library Board. | 66 | |
| 5 | Chapter-divisions and running-head written in traditional style, Christ Church Oxford 145, fol. 71r. c. 1390–1400. Reproduced by permission of the Governing Body of Christ Church, Oxford. | 89 | |
| 6 | John the Evangelist, British Library Royal 1. C. Ⅷ, fol. 325v. London (?), c. 1400–10. Reproduced by permission of the British Library Board. | 90 | |
| 7 | The Four Evangelists, British Library Arundel 104, fol. 251r. London (?), c. 1430. Reproduced by permission of the British Library Board. | 91 | |
| 8 | The Song of Songs, with speaker-rubrics, British Library Egerton 617, fol. 18r. London (?), before 1397. Reproduced by permission of the British Library Board. | 93 | |
| 9 | Initial at the opening of Tobit, Bodleian Douce 36, fol. 11r. London (?), c. 1410–20. Reproduced by permission of the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford. | 98 | |
| 10 | Corrections in Bodley 959, fol. 269v. Oxford (?), c. 1380–90. Reproduced by permission of the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford. | 144 | |
| 11 | Marginal glosses in British Library Cotton Claudius E. Ⅱ, fol. 80r. London (?), c. 1410. Reproduced by permission of the British Library Board. | 168 |
The following friends and colleagues generously shared ideas and information and offered suggestions while this work was in progress: Mishtooni Bose, Christopher de Hamel, Kantik Ghosh, Steve Halasey, Ralph Hanna, Anne Hudson, Michael Kuczynski, Ian Levy, Conrad Lindberg, Michelle O’Malley, Shannon McSheffrey, Paul Needham, Barbara Pertzel, Derrick Pitard, Anne Karin Ro, Wendy Scase, James Simpson, Clive Sneddon, Fiona Somerset, Toshiyuki Takamiya, Norman Vance, Brian Young, and two anonymous readers on behalf of the Cambridge University Press. I am particularly grateful to Simon Hunt for allowing me to make reference to his unpublished dissertation, to Vybarr Cregan-Reid for his help with technical issues, and to Dora, George, Ruth and Stephen.
I am grateful to librarians at the following libraries and institutions for making manuscripts available and taking time to discuss them with me: the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford; the Bridwell Library at Southern Methodist University; the British Library; Cambridge University Library; Christ Church, Oxford; Columbia University Library; Corpus Christi College, Cambridge; Corpus Christi College, Oxford; Emmanuel College, Cambridge; Gloucester Record Office; Hereford Cathedral Library; the John Rylands University Library, the University of Manchester; Lambeth Palace Library; the London Library; Magdalene College, Cambridge; the Marquis of Bath’s Library at Longleat; Norwich Corporation Library; the Queen’s College, Oxford; the William H. Scheide Library; St John’s College, Cambridge; St John’s College, Oxford; Trinity College, Cambridge; Trinity College, Dublin; the Van Kampen Collection; Wadham College, Oxford; Worcester College, Oxford, and York Minster Library. Many thanks to Consuelo Dutschke, Director of the Digital Scriptorium, Lynda McLeod of Christie’s, and the private owners of manuscripts of the Wycliffite Bible who have permitted me to include details of their copies in the Index of Manuscripts.
This project could not have been completed without the research leave and financial assistance provided by the School of English and American Studies and the School of Humanities at the University of Sussex, and by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Academy. I should also like to thank the Rockefeller Foundation for generously accommodating me in their Study Centre at Bellagio, and the President and Fellows of Clare Hall, Cambridge, where most of this book was written.
| BRUO | A. B. Emden, A Biographical Register of the University of Oxford to AD 1500, 3 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957–9) |
| BS | Biblia Sacra Iuxta Latinam Vulgatam Versionem, 18 vols. (Rome: Vatican, 1926–1995) |
| CCCM | Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaeualis |
| CCSL | Corpus Christianorum Series Latina |
| CHB, Ⅰ | P. R. Ackroyd and C. F. Evans, eds., The Cambridge History of the Bible, Volume 1: From the Beginnings to Jerome (Cambridge University Press, 1970) |
| CHB, Ⅱ | G. W. H. Lampe, ed., The Cambridge History of the Bible, Volume 2: The West From The Fathers To The Reformation (Cambridge University Press, 1969) |
| DDC | Augustine, De Doctrina Christiana, ed. J. Martin, CCSL ⅩⅩⅩⅡ (Turnhout: Brepols, 1962) |
| Deanesly, LB | Margaret Deanesly, The Lollard Bible and Other Medieval Biblical Versions (Cambridge University Press, 1920) |
| De Hamel, Book | Christopher De Hamel, The Book: A History of the Bible (London: Phaidon, 2001) |
| EETS | Early English Text Society (o.s. = old series; n.s. = new series) |
| EV | Earlier Version of the Wycliffite Bible |
| Fristedt, WB, Ⅰ | Sven L. Fristedt, The Wycliffe Bible, Part Ⅰ. The Principal Problems Connected with Forshall and Madden’s Edition, SSE 4 (Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell, 1953) |
| Fristedt, WB, Ⅱ | Sven L. Fristedt, The Wycliffe Bible, Part Ⅱ: The Origin of the First Revision as Presented in De Salutaribus Documentis, SSE 21 (Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell, 1969) |
| Fristedt, WB, Ⅲ | Sven L. Fristedt, The Wycliffe Bible, Part Ⅲ: Relationships of Trevisa and the Spanish Medieval Bibles, SSE 28 (Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell, 1973) |
| FZ | W. W. Shirley, ed., Fasciculi Zizaniorum Magistri Johannis Wyclif cum Tritico, Rolls Series 5 (London, 1885) |
| Ghosh, WH | Kantik Ghosh, The Wycliffite Heresy: Authority and the Interpretation of Texts (Cambridge University Press, 2001) |
| Hudson, PR | Anne Hudson, The Premature Reformation: Wycliffite Texts and Lollard History (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988) |
| Hudson, SEWW | Anne Hudson, ed., Selections from English Wycliffite Writings (Cambridge University Press, 1978) |
| Hunt, TFST | Simon Hunt, ‘An Edition of Tracts in Favour of Scriptural Translation and of Some Texts connected with Lollard Vernacular Biblical Scholarship’, DPhil thesis, 2 vols., University of Oxford (1994) |
| Ker, MLGB | Neil R. Ker and Andrew G. Watson, Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Manuscripts, 2nd edn (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964) |
| Ker, MMBL | Neil R. Ker, Medieval Manuscripts in British Libraries, vol. Ⅰ (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969), vol. Ⅱ (1977), vol. Ⅲ (1983), vol. Ⅳ (1992), vol. Ⅴ (2000) |
| LALME | Angus McIntosh, M. L. Samuels and Michael Benskin, A Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English, 4 vols. (Aberdeen University Press, 1986) |
| Lewis, NT | John Lewis, The New Testament of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Translated out of the Latin Vulgat by John Wiclif (London: Page, 1731) |
| Lindberg, Baruch | Conrad Lindberg, ed., The Middle English Bible 2: The Book of Baruch (Oslo: Norwegian University Press, 1985) |
| Lindberg, EV | Conrad Lindberg, ed., The Earlier Version of the Wycliffite Bible, vol. Ⅰ, SSE 6 (Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell, 1959), vol. Ⅱ, SSE 8 (1961), vol. Ⅲ, SSE 10 (1963), vol. Ⅳ, SSE 13 (1965), vol. Ⅴ, SSE 20 (1969), vol. Ⅵ, SSE 29 (1973), vol. Ⅶ, SSE 81 (1994), vol. Ⅷ, SSE 87 (1997) |
| Lindberg, Judges | Conrad Lindberg, ed., The Middle English Bible 3: The Book of Judges (Oslo: Norwegian University Press, 1989) |
| Lindberg, KHB | Conrad Lindberg, ed., King Henry’s Bible, MS Bodl 277: the Revised Version of the Wyclif Bible, vol. Ⅰ SSE 89 (Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell, 1999), vol. Ⅱ SSE 94 (2001), vol. Ⅲ SSE 98 (2002), vol. Ⅳ SSE 100 (2004) |
| Lindberg, MSS | Conrad Lindberg, ‘The Manuscripts and Versions of the Wycliffite Bible: A Preliminary Survey’, Studia Neophilologica 42 (1970), 333–47 |
| Lindberg, PE | Conrad Lindberg, ed., The Middle English Bible 1: Prefatory Epistles of St. Jerome (Oslo: Norwegian University Press, 1978) |
| LV | Later Version of the Wycliffite Bible |
| MED | H. Kurath, S. M. Kuhn et al., eds., Middle English Dictionary (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1952–2001) |
| ODNB | H. G. C. Matthew and Brian Harrison, eds., The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 61 vols. (Oxford University Press, 2004) |
| PL | Patrologia Cursus Completus Series Latina, ed. J.-P. Migne |
| RBMA | F. Stegmüller and N. Reinhardt, Repertorium Biblicum Medii Aevi, 11 vols. (Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 1950–80) |
| Sharpe, HLW | Richard Sharpe, A Handlist of the Latin Writers of Great Britain and Ireland before 1540 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2001) |
| SSE | Stockholm Studies in English |
| WB | Wycliffite Bible |
| WB | Josiah Forshall and Frederic Madden, eds., The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments, with the Apocryphal Books, in the Earliest English Versions Made from the Latin Vulgate by John Wycliffe and His Followers, 4 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1850) |
| WW, NT | John Wordsworth and Henry Julian White, Nouum Testamentum Domini Nostri Iesu Christi Latine Secundum Editionem Sancti Hieronymi, 3 parts (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1889–1954) |
I retain the sigla used by Josiah Forshall and Frederic Madden as far as possible, but where they use the same siglum for more than one manuscript, or more than one siglum for the same manuscript, a choice has had to be made. Conrad Lindberg’s two-letter sigla are potentially ambiguous: the sigla including a _ are my own.
For further details of all manuscripts, see the Index of manuscripts of the Wycliffite Bible (pp. 281–306).
| A | Corpus Christi College Oxford 4 |
| A | British Library Royal 1. C. Ⅷ |
| a | Bodley 183 |
| α | British Library Harley 1666 |
| B | Bodleian Douce 370 |
| B | British Library Royal 1. C. Ⅸ |
| b | Bodleian Rawlinson C. 259 |
| b | British Library Harley 2249 |
| B_554 | Bodley 554 |
| β | University College Oxford 96 |
| C | Bodleian Douce 369 part 1 |
| C | British Library Cotton Claudius E.Ⅱ |
| c | Gonville and Caius College Cambridge 343/539 |
| ç | John Rylands Library Eng. 82 |
| Ca (Lindberg) | see C_U_6680 |
| C_J_E.14 | St John’s College Cambridge E. 14 |
| C_J_G.26 | St John’s College Cambridge G. 26 |
| C_U_6680 | Cambridge University Library Additional 6680 |
| C_U_6682 | Cambridge University Library Additional 6682 |
| C_U_6683 | Cambridge University Library Additional 6683 |
| D | see U |
| D | British Library Lansdowne 454 |
| d | Magdalene College Cambridge Pepys Library 1603 |
| D_72 | Trinity College Dublin 72 |
| D_74 | Trinity College Dublin 74 |
| D_76 | Trinity College Dublin 76 |
| E | Bodley 959 |
| E | British Library Arundel 104 |
| e | British Library Harley 5017 |
| F | Trinity College Dublin 66 |
| F | Sion College ARC L 40.2 / E1 |
| f | British Library Harley 3903 |
| G | British Library Egerton 617/618 |
| G | Lincoln College Oxford Latin 119 |
| g | British Library Additional 10596 |
| 132 | Cambridge University Library Ll. 1. 13 |
| H | Cambridge University Library Additional 6681 |
| H | Corpus Christi College Oxford 20 |
| Ha (Lindberg) | see b |
| I | Bodley 277 |
| i | British Library Additional 10046 |
| ι | Cambridge University Library Kk. 1. 8 |
| J | Jesus College Cambridge 30 |
| K | Bodleian Douce 369 part 2 |
| K | Bodleian Fairfax 2 |
| k | British Library Additional 10047 |
| L | Bodley 296 |
| l | Bodleian Rawlinson C. 237/238 |
| L_o | Marquess of Bath Longleat 3 |
| M | British Library Royal 1. B. Ⅵ |
| M | Queen’s College Oxford 388 |
| m | Bodleian Rawlinson C. 257 |
| N | Sidney Sussex College Cambridge 99 |
| N | St John’s College Oxford 7 |
| n | Bodleian Dugdale 46 |
| O | Magdalene College Cambridge F. 4. 6 |
| O | New College Oxford 66 |
| o | British Library Harley 6333 |
| P | Bodleian Rawlinson C. 258 |
| P | Emmanuel College Cambridge 21 |
| p | Emmanuel College Cambridge 108 |
| P_P | Penn University Library Philadelphia 120 |
| P_S | W. H. Scheide Library Princeton 12 |
| Q | National Library of Scotland Edinburgh Advocates 18. 6. 7 |
| Q | Cambridge University Library Mm. 2. 15 |
| q | Van Kampen MS 637 |
| R | Cambridge University Library Dd. 1. 27 |
| r | John Rylands Library Eng. 80 |
| Ry (Lindberg) | see R_91 |
| R_77 | John Rylands Library Eng. 77 |
| R_81 | John Rylands Library Eng. 81 |
| R_83 | John Rylands Library Eng. 83 |
| R_88 | John Rylands Library Eng. 88 |
| R_89 | John Rylands Library Eng. 89 |
| R_91 | John Rylands Library Eng. 91 |
| S | New York Public Library 67 |
| S | Corpus Christi College Cambridge Parker Library 147 |
| s | Jesus College Cambridge 47 |
| T | Trinity College Dublin 75 |
| T | Trinity College Cambridge B. 2. 8 |
| t | Cambridge University Library Gg. 6. 8 |
| U | British Library Additional 11858 |
| U | Lambeth Palace London 25 |
| u | British Library Harley 1212 |
| V | New College Oxford 67 |
| V | Lambeth Palace London 1033 |
| W | Yale University Beinecke Library 125 |
| W | Norfolk Heritage Centre I h 20 |
| w | Magdalene College Cambridge Pepys 2073 |
| W_o | Herzog-August-Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel Guelf. Aug. A. 2 |
| X | Christ Church Oxford 145 |
| X | Hereford Cathedral Library O. Ⅶ. 1 |
| x | Lambeth Palace London 369 |
| Y | British Library Additional 15580 |
| Y | Trinity College Dublin 67 |
| y | British Library Additional 15521 |
| Z | Cambridge University Library Ee. 1. 10 |