Munro, John James, ed., John Capgrave's Lives of St. Augustine and St. Gilbert of Sempringham and a Sermon (Early English Text Society Original Series 140, 1910 [Rpt. 2001]). ISBN: 859918866
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Text name(s): Life of St. Augustine; Life of St. Gilbert

Number of pages of primary source text: 0

Medieval Author(s): Capgrave, John

Dates: 1415 - 1493

Archival Reference: BL Additional 36704; BL Cotton Vitellius D.XV

Original Language(s): English - Middle English;

Translation: Original language included.

Translation Comments:

Geopolitical Region(s): England;

County/Region: East Anglia

Apparatus: Index Glossary

Comments:

John Capgrave was an Augustinian friar in Lynn, a contemporary of Chaucer, Lydgate, and Margery Kempe. He was a prolific writer in Middle English, usually writing at the request of a patron. He was part of the literary milieu of late medieval East Anglia, where vernacular literature thrived largely thanks to the wealthy middle-class wives who patronized a great deal of devotional literature. This volume contains Capgrave’s Life of St. Augustine, the saint who converted England to Christianity, and St. Gilbert of Sempringham, founder of the Gilbertine Order, written at the request of the nuns of Sempringham. The edition provides the texts in Middle English, with modern English marginal notes summarizing the text. There is a fairly comprehensive glossary and a subject index.

Introduction Summary:

The introduction (16 pp.) begins with a discussion of John Capgrave, the author of Chronicle of England, then moves on to discuss the Life of St. Augustine and the Life of St. Gilbert, as well as the sermon Capgrave gave in Cambridge, 1422. Finally, the discussion turns to the manuscripts themselves, and a discussion of the Life of St. Norbert, the language of the manuscript, and grammar.

Cataloger: mk; KML