This book explores the fifteenth-century translations of Richard Rolle's Latin and English writings into English and Latin, respectively, raising questions about the impact of translation on an author's legacy through the editorial activity of his translators. The volume also discusses Rolle's sensory mysticism - which was criticized by the ensuing generation of mystics - whilst looking into the ways in which translations of his work create a fifteenth-century version of Rolle. While the fifteenth-century translations did not represent the standard means of shaping Rolle's authority, this study illustrates individual encounters with Rolle's writings in which interpretation was much more overt than in the devotional reuse of untranslated Rollean material. The volume asks if alternative and perhaps controversial portraits of the same author arise from the translations.
Richard Rolle has received many, often conflicting, labels in scholarship: the father of English prose, the first medieval English author, the first known mystic of English literature, the runaway Oxford man, the non-conformist hermit, and the misogynist. This book is located in the context of the late medieval censorship culture which inevitably impacted the translators' treatment of authority, revelatory writing, and theological speculations. The analysis of Rolle in translation highlights the various meanings, practices, and implications of translation in the fifteenth century.
Author(s): Tamás Karáth
Series: Medieval Church Studies, 40
Publisher: Brepols
Year: 2018
Language: English
Pages: 386
City: Turnhout
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgements ix
Abbreviations xi
Introduction 1
Chapter 1. Rolle in Hindsight: Legacy and Translations 13
Richard Rolle and his Mystical Experience 13
Fourteenth-Century Criticism of Rolle’s Mysticism 21
Rolle and/in Translation 26
Chapter 2. The Latin Translations of 'Ego dormio' and 'The Form of Living' 35
The Latin 'Ego dormio': Text, Manuscripts, and Translation 35
Author/Speaker and Addressee in the Latin 'Ego dormio' 42
Rolle’s 'Ego dormio' in the Cloister 49
The Latin 'Ego dormio' and Universal Salvation 57
An Afterthought: The Latin Translation of 'The Form of Living' 73
Chapter 3. Richard Misyn’s Translation of 'Incendium amoris' 77
Richard Misyn: Hermit and Prelate 78
The Manuscripts of Misyn’s 'Fire of Love' 89
Misyn as Translator 109
Misyn as Editor 121
Misyn’s Purpose of Text 133
Chapter 4. The English Translations of Rolle’s 'Emendatio vit'e 141
Readers and Uses of the English Versions of the 'Emendatio' on the Basis of Manuscript Evidence 147
Hiding Translators: Characteristics of the Textual Strategies 162
Theological Speculations in the English Translations of the 'Emendatio' 212
The Taming of Rolle: Overwriting Affects in the Translations 224
Conclusion 239
Appendix I. Additions in Misyn’s Translation of 'Incendium amoris' 245
Appendix II. Omissions in Misyn’s Translation of 'Incendium amoris' 257
Appendix III. Different Meanings and Errors in Misyn’s Translation of 'Incendium amoris' 271
Appendix IV. Translations of Rolle’s Key Terms Related to 'calor' in Misyn’s 'Incendium amoris' 289
Appendix V. Misyn’s Translation of Rolle’s 'Emendatio vite': 'Calor', 'canor', and the Bodily Responses to Emotional Fervour 307
Appendix VI. Omissions and Additions in the Version C Translation of 'Emendatio vite' (New Haven, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Takamiya Collection, MS 66) 313
Appendix VII. The Version F Translation of Rolle’s 'Emendatio vite' 343
Works Cited 351
Index of Manuscripts 365
General Index 367
