NOTES ON THE TEXT AND TRANSLATION

The text of the Laon Ordo Joseph that appears below is based on Young (2:266–76); his emendations to the Latin are indicated as such. Edito¬rial additions, including folio numbers, appear in [square brackets]. Expan¬sions of abbreviations are indicated by italics. Rubrics are indented from the left margin. Lines are numbered following Young, but some lines have been combined to better reflect the 8p+7pp rhythm found in much of the text; in these passages, vertical bars indicate Young's line breaks. Thus, many verses that appear as six lines in Young appear here as four (for example, lines 25–30ff.). Scene labels and numbering are in ALL CAPS and are of course my addition.

Words capitalized in the manuscript appear capitalized; the names of characters that appear in lower case in the manuscript have been capitalized here, and names beginning with an I in the manuscript source and Young appear here with J instead. All appearances of E “caudata” (ę) have been exapanded to “ae.”

The translation is my own. In general, I have opted for a translation that is more literal than poetic; in some cases, the flexibility and conven¬tions of the Latin do not lend themselves to an especially elegant result. The polyptotonic repetition of “frater” (fratri, fraternum, fratribus) in lines 13–16, for example, is not easily rendered in English without awkwardness.