Ancrene Wisse: From Pastoral Literature to Vernacular Spirituality

(Hardback)

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Description

This book is innovative in that it provides an introduction to Ancrene Wisse, one of the most important works in English of the thirteenth century. It offers a new contextualisation which engages with the history of lay piety and vernacular spirituality in the Middle Ages, thus extending analysis of the book beyond its original purpose as a guide for anchoresses. The placing of Ancrene Wisse within this context also allows comparisons to be made with other literature for semi-regular women, such as sermons preached to beguines semi-religious women who formed communities in the Low Countries and France in the High Middle Ages.

. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 3.0 license and is part of the OAPEN-UK research project.

Reviews

" ... an argument that takes into consideration the most up-to-date information on the text and its contexts." Dennis Renevey, Chair of Medieval English, Universite de Lausanne

Author Bio

Dr. Cate Gunn is a tutor at the University of Essex and also at Cambridge University Institute of Continuing Education. She is an expert on Ancrene Wisse having written widely on the subject and is a contributor to Anchorites, Wombs and Tombs (University of Wales Press).