Speculum vitae is the hitherto unedited translation into Middle English verse of Lorens of Orleans's profoundly influential pastoral treatise, Somme le roi. The translation, in Yorkshire dialect, is a vast work, 16,000 lines in four-stress couplets, and more than forty extant copies testify to its popularity. Despite the evident editorial difficulties which it presents, the previous neglect of Speculum vitae is to be regretted. It is the product of an important regional centre, and should take its place alongside the other monuments of this tradition: Cursor Mundi, The Prick of Conscience, and the Northern Homily Cycle. Moreover, it is important as a versification of Lorens's catechetical classic, which was a ceaseless inspriation for Middle English prose translators - the Speculum is the only known verse translation. This edition is based on a collation of the five early manuscripts, all Yorkshire productions, which communicate a distinct, and usually more satisfactory, form of the text than the remaining copies. The Introduction will discuss the manuscripts, authorship, dialect, and date, with an account both of its source and other works which it has influenced. The volume will contain a bibliography, notes, and glossary.

The first comprehensive study of medieval changelings and associated attitudes to the health and care of children in the period. The changeling - a monstrous creature swapped for a human child by malevolent powers - is an enduring image in the popular imagination; dubbing a child a changeling is traditionally understood as a way to justify the often-violent rejection of a disabled or ailing infant. Belief in the reality of changelings is famously attested in Stephen of Bourbon's disapproving thirteenth-century account of rites at the shrine of Saint Guinefort the Holy Greyhound, where sick children were brought to be cured. However, the focus on the St. Guinefort rituals has meant some scholarly neglect of the wealth of other sources of knowledge (including mystery plays and medical texts) and the nuances with which the changeling motif was used in this period. This interdisciplinary study considers the idea of the changeling as a cultural construct through an examination of a broad range of medical, miracle, and imaginative texts, as well as the lives of three more conventional Saints, Stephen, Bartholomew and Lawrence, who, in their infancy, were said to have been replaced by a demonic changeling. The author highlights how people from all walks of life were invested in both creating and experiencing the images, texts and artefacts depicting these changelings, and examines societal tensions regarding infants and children: their health, their care, and their position within the familial unit.

This volume of previously uncollected studies makes a notable contribution to Merton's extensive and influential legacy. This volume includes pieces on eleventh- and twelfth-century mo­nastics by Thomas Merton, perhaps the most significant American Catholic spiritual writer of the twentieth century. The essays are difficult to locate elsewhere, the conference transcriptions are available only here.

Speculum vitae is the hitherto unedited translation into Middle English verse of Lorens d'Orlean's profoundly influential pastoral treatise, 'Somme le roi'. ... This edition is based on a collation of the five early manuscripts, all Yorkshire productions ... The Introduction contains a full discussion of the manuscripts, authorship, dialect and date, with an account of both its source and other works which it has influenced.