Richard
J. Kelly.
Blickling Homilies: Edition and Translation.
New
York:
Continuum, 2003.
288pp.
Hardback ISBN
0826467857,
$85.00/£45.00.
Publisher's
recommended price $85.00/£45.00
The
Blickling Homilies
date from the end of the tenth century and form one of the earliest
extant
collections of English vernacular homiletic writings. The homiletic
texts
survive in a composite codex consisting of Municipal Entries for the
Council
of Lincoln (14th - 17th century), a Calendar (mid 15th century), Gospel
Oaths (early 14th century), and the eighteen homiletic texts that are
based
on the yearly liturgical cycle. The Blickling Homilies are an important
literary milestone in the early evolution of the English prose.
The
manuscript,
in the collection of William H. Scheide housed in Princeton University
Library (MS. 71, s.x/xi), was published in facsimile by Rudolph Willard
in 1960 as Volume 10 of Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile,
Copenhagen.
It is the only Anglo-Saxon MS still in private ownership, and together
with The Blickling Psalter are the only two Anglo-Saxon MSS in the
Americas.
The
only previous
edition of The Blickling Homilies is by Richard Morris, published in
three
volumes in 1874, 1876, & 1880 (reprinted as one volume in 1967).
This
new edition makes a number of corrections where Morris's manuscript
reading
is in error. The English translations are modernized and made more
accurate.
The original text and facing-page translation have been formatted into
paragraphs, which are hoped to further and aid comprehension. Finally,
the text and translation are accompanied by a general introduction,
textual
notes on each homiletic text, tables and charts, and a select
bibliography.
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