Richard Rolle and the Invention of Authority (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature) [Hardcover]

Nicholas Watson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 29, 1991 | ISBN-10: 0521390176 | ISBN-13: 978-0521390170

This is the first literary study of the career of Richard Rolle (d. 1349), a Yorkshire hermit and mystic who was one of the most widely-read English writers of the late Middle Ages. Nicholas Watson proposes a new chronology of Rolle's writings, and offers the first literary analyses of a number of his works. He shows how Rolle's career, as a writer of passionate religious works in Latin and later in English, has as its principal focus the establishment of his own spiritual authority. The book also addresses wider issues, suggesting a new way of looking at mystical writing in general, and challenging the prevailing view of the relationship between medieval and Renaissance attitudes to authors and authority.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...the most substantial assessment of Rolle and his importance since Hope Emily Allen's monumental Writings Ascribed to Richard Rolle, Hermit of Hampole, and Materials for His Biography, published in 1927. It is a meticulous study of Rolle's works, emphasizing the Latin ones, as evidence for an emerging authorial persona that could reconcile Rolle's conflicting apologetic and didactic aims....[T]hose who stick with it will be impressed by a lively intelligence engaged on an elusive subject, who in his writings tended to speak through the veiled language of Scripture rather than directly. Watson and his publishers are to be praised for the abundance and length of the Latin quotations (with good translations) allowed into the book....Except for Hope Emily Allen, no one to date has devoted so much serious attention to Rolle's style. The reader who perseveres with Watson will arrive at a new respect for Rolle's career...." Michael P. Kuczynski, Speculum

Book Description

This is a literary study of Richard Rolle, one of the most widely read English writers of the late Middle Ages. Nicholas Watson proposes a chronology of Rolle's Latin and English writings and offers a literary analyses of a number of his works, showing how they focus principally on the establishment of his own spiritual authority.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 372 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (November 29, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521390176
• ISBN-13: 978-0521390170
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,986,604 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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