Confessio Amantis (lacks ending) preceded by the Speculum Religiosorum of Edmund of Abingdon

Oxford, 1450–60

Contents

1

(fols 1ra–6vb) The Speculum Religiosorum of Edmund of Abingdon (St Edmund of Abingdon, archbishop of Canterbury 1234–40, buried at Pontigny).

Helen P. Forshaw, S.H.C.J. (ed.), Edmund of Abingdon, Speculum Religiosorum and Speculum Ecclesie, Auctores Britannici Medii Aevi, III (London, 1973). The Speculum, a treatise for religious on the spiritual life of prayer and contemplation, is an unexpected companion for the Confessio. It was written by the same scribe and decorated by the same artist as the Confessio, and presumably Sir Edmund Rede (see PROVENANCE, below) asked for it to be included. Forshaw (ed., Speculum, 4) suggests that the Speculum was ‘chosen to fill up the first gathering’.

Fol. 7 (last leaf of first quire) blank, except for later inscription (see ADDITIONS, below).

2

(fols 8ra–215vb) Confessio Amantis Prol. 1–VIII.3062*

Prologue (fol. 8ra); Book I (fol. 13vb); Book II (fol. 33ra); Book III (fol. 54ra); Book IV (Latin, fol. 71ra, English, fol. 71rb); Book V (fol. 94vb); Book VI (fol. 146ra); Book VII (fol. 161va); Book VIII (Latin, fol. 196va, English, fol. 196vb) wants 3063*–3114*.

The text ends abruptly at VIII.3062*, two-thirds of the way down the first column of fol. 215v, without explicit or explanation. Some fifty-two lines are missing, presumably through loss of leaf in an exemplar, though the line with which the text concludes (with the commonly attested variant as]for) makes a satisfactory ending in itself.