A study of the sermon collection of John Waldeby, Austin Friar of York in the fourteenth century

My thesis offers a study of a collection of sermons for Sundays attributed to John
Waldeby, an Austin Friar who was active in the city of York in the fourteenth century.
By adopting the vertical approach of investigating a single medieval sermon collection
in its entirety, it provides an insight into the preaching-support system of the mendicant
friars and into different phases from the composition of the work to reception, in terms
of both the use of the manuscripts by readers and the way the audience would have
understood the sermons when they were preached.
This thesis is divided into two major parts, each containing three chapters: the
first part concerns the setting in which Waldeby's collection, the Novum opus
dominicale, was written and used; the second part constitutes an analysis of the
sermons in the work. Chapter 1 deals with the biography of Waldeby and sets out the
basic information concerning the Novum opus dominicale. Chapter 2 identifies the
proximate recipients of the work-the `youths' (iuuenes) assigned to Waldeby-and
the wider lay audience, and examines various aspects of the training and education of
friars within the Augustinian order. Through a close examination of the library
catalogue of the York convent and the sources used in the Novum opus dominicale,
Chapter 3 uncovers the existence of a reference book collection and describes the
overall organisation of the library collection. Waldeby's collection emerges as the key
text in the library, which was the material basis for the fundamental training of the
friars and for supporting sermon composition. Chapter 4, the first chapter of Part II,
extensively explores the form of Waldeby's sermons by a close comparative reading
alongside Robert of Basevotn's Forma praedicandi. It reveals not only the intricacies
of the techniques involved in the composition of `modern' sermons, but also elements
of the mindset of preachers such as Waldeby. Chapter 5 focuses on the word `sign'
(signum) which often appears in Waldeby's collection. The concept of sign plays a
crucial role in both the mental framework through which he interpreted the Bible and
the world, and the method by which he communicated his message to his audiences.
The final chapter examines the overall design of the Novum opus dominicale in the
broader perspective of de tempore collections. This study is accompanied by a critical
transcription of one of the sermons of the Novum opus dominicale.