An edition of a fifteenth century middle English temporale sermon cycle in MSS Lambeth Palace 392 and Cambridge University library additional 5338

This edition comprises twenty-three Middle English Temporale sermons which are contained in two early fifteenth century manuscripts, Lambeth Palace 392 (Lb) and Cambridge University Library Additional 5338 (Ad). The collection runs from 1 Advent to Easter, but is not fully represented in either manuscript; only ten of the sermons (3 Advent to 5 Sunday after the octave of the Epiphany) are shared by Ad and Lb. These ten sermons are presented en face in the edition, and each manuscript has been edited separately. The choice of en face presentation was determined by the comparative brevity of the overlapping portion and by the distinctive character of both manuscripts.
The AdLb series draws material from the Set I sermons of the English Wycliffite sermon-cycle; the borrowings are largely limited to the translation of the gospel pericopes which preface most of the AdLb sermons, but one sermon, that for the octave of the Epiphany, takes over almost entirely the complete wycliffite sermon for the corresponding occasion. The Notes record in detail that AdLb is a derivative compilation.
But the Lollard interest of the series goes beyond these borrowings. While the collection is basically orthodox, the compiler has also added; tendentious material, or changed the emphasis of the source, to create a hybrid of quite orthodox sentiments and popular Lollard belief. This combination appears to be characteristic of early fifteenth century sermon and devotional texts.
The handling of the source, which for most of the sermons is the Latin Sunday gospel collection of Nicholas de Aquevilla OFK, is reviewed extensively in the Notes and reveals the extent of the preacher's proto-Lollard interventions.
The Introduction describes Lb and Ad, and discusses their inter-relation. An anslysis of the language of both manuscripts reveals an anterior Norfolk copy of the series, which is at several removes from the original. I give a brief account of the preacher's ideology, which is also explored in detail in the Notes, and suggest some ways of approaching the sermons within a literary context. I survey the relationship between three sermons in Adlb and three in the fifteenth century collection witnessed in MS Harley 2247 (H) and MS Royal 18 B XXV (R) which also draw on the sermons of Nicholas de Aquevilla.
Part II contains the Notes to the sermons, Which include the relevant text of the Latin source. There is a Select Glossary and a Bibliography