The English Text of the `Ancrene Riwle': The Vernon Text

There is currently much interest in the `mouvance' of a medieval text: the way in which different manuscripts reflect its evolution to meet changing readers' needs. Ancrene Riwle (Ancrene Wisse) is ideally suited to such study. Although it began as a guide for anchoresses, composed in the thirteenth century, it addressed a wider audience, and served as a popular guide to spirituality down to the Reformation. The `Vernon' version, copied in the second half of the fourteenth century, is the last in the series of editions of individual manuscript versions to be published by EETS. The series began with the publication of the Latin text, edited by C. D'Evelyn (OS 216) in 1944, and the French text, edited by J. A. Herbert (OS 219). The first of the English texts to appear was the Nero MS, edited by M. Day (OS 225, 1952).