Two Middle English Prayer Cycles: Holkham Prayers and Meditations and Simon Appulby, The Fruyte of Redempcyon
glossary.attributions_other
- Unknown
- Author
- Simon Appulby
- Author
- Ben Parsons
- Editor
- description
This volume presents the first critical editions of two fascinating but overlooked medieval prayer sequences: the Holkham "Prayers and Meditations” (c. 1400-1420), a rare example of medieval religious literature by a female author written to guide a “religious sustir” in her devotions; and Simon Appulby’s “Fruyte of Redempcyon (1514), composed by one of England’s last anchorites to serve his urban community. Patterned after the widely influential fourteenth-century Meditationes vitae Christi (“Meditations on the Life of Christ”) and its psychological model of prayer, both cycles direct their readers to imagine themselves in Jesus’s presence during key events of Christian history, mystically envisioning and experiencing Christ’s life and passion in the here and now through a state of spiritual intimacy. Despite their differences in century, contexts, and intended audiences, these prayer sequences together introduce readers to one of the most vital and idiosyncratic traditions of medieval Christian devotion.
- forms
- Prose
- languages
- English, Middle (1100–1500)
- time periods
- 15th Century, 16th Century
- categories
- Biblical exegesis, Prayer, TEI-XML
- additional information
- Cover image: Printed Book of Hours (Use of Rome): fol. 90r, St. Bridget in Prayer before an Apparition of Christ. French, sixteenth century. Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 2009.276.90.a. (Photo courtesy of The Cleveland Museum of Art.) Cover design by Theresa Whitaker.