Of Shrifte and Penance - The ME Prose Translation of 'Le Manuel des Péchés'

Edited from St. John's College, Cambridge, MS G. 30 by Klaus Bitterling.

The edition is complemented by an introduction, textual commentary, explanatory notes, glossary, indices of names and examples, appendix on the language of the manuscript and a bibliography. The introduction first addresses background, authorship, date, content, sources, relationships and manuscripts of the "Manuel des Péchés" and moves on to the translation edited in this book, dealing with questions of translation techniques, relation to the source, manuscript, date, dialect and provenance. - The "Manuel des Péchés", a popular rhymed compendium of moral theology, is one of the many vernacular treatises whose aim was to promulgate and elucidate in popular form the legislation of the religious reform initiated by Pope Innocent III at the 4th Lateran Council (e.g. annual confession and communion), including versified expositions of the Seven Deadly Sins, the Ten Commandments, penitential poems, and other doctrinal or didactic information works. The most probable date for the prose translation to Middle English seems to be towards the end of the 14th century. 232 Seiten, broschiert (Middle English Texts; Vol. 29/Universitätsverlag Winter 1998) leichte Lagerspuren