The Index of Middle English Prose: Handlist XVI: The Laudian Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford

Archbishop Laud was Chancellor of the University of Oxford from 1629-1641, during which period he donated over twelve thousand manuscripts to the Bodleian Library. Only a small minority of these contain Middle English prose, but they cover a wide spectrum. Religious works include eight copies of the Wycliffite New Testament, one unrecorded by printed authorities, Wycliffite sermons, writings by Rolle and Hilton, Wimbledon and Lavynham, a unique collection of Kentish dialect sermons, Disce Mori, and copies of many other popular anonymous treatises, some previously unnoted. Among the secular works are The Brut, The Canterbury Tales, Mandeville’s Travels, De Re Militari, The Pilgrimage of the Life of the Manhood, writings by Fortescue, one unique, a heraldic treatise and two extensive compilations of medical texts. S. J. OGILVIE-THOMSON was formerly lecturer in language and medieval literature at St Edmund Hall, Oxford.