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Two Ælfric Texts: The Twelve Abuses and The Vices and Virtues

Two Ælfric Texts: The Twelve Abuses and The Vices and Virtues: An Edition and Translation of De duodecimo abusiuis and De octo uitiis et de duodecimo abusiuis

Edited with a translation by MARY CLAYTON
Series: Anglo-Saxon Texts
Volume: 11
Copyright Date: 2013
Published by: Boydell and Brewer,
Pages: 200
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7722/j.ctt31njxd
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  • Book Info
    Two Ælfric Texts: The Twelve Abuses and The Vices and Virtues
    Book Description:

    The texts edited in this volume are Ælfric's vernacular versions of two highly influential early medieval ethical treatises. The first, De duodecim abusiuis, is his Old English version of a seventh-century Hiberno-Latin tract dealing with the twelve abuses of the world. The second, De octo uitiis et de duodecim abusiuis, is a composite text; it combines a treatment of the eight vices and the complementary eight virtues, also found as the last part of Ælfric's Lives of Saints XVI, with the twelve abuses. The main source for the virtues and vices is Alcuin's ninth-century De uirtutibus et uitiis. Both texts were composed in Ælfric's hallmark rhythmical, alliterative prose. This new edition provides, for the first time, critical editions of both texts, with a facing translation, presented with full apparatus; it also includes an extensive discussion of the sources and how they are treated. Mary Clayton is Professor of Old and Middle English, University College Dublin.

    eISBN: 978-1-78204-191-7
    Subjects: Language & Literature

Table of Contents

  1. Front Matter
    (pp. i-iv)
  2. Table of Contents
    (pp. v-vi)
  3. Preface
    (pp. vii-viii)
  4. Acknowledgements
    (pp. viii-viii)
  5. Abbreviations
    (pp. ix-ix)
  6. Sigla of Manuscripts containing the Old English Texts
    (pp. x-x)
  7. Editorial Conventions
    (pp. x-x)
  8. Introduction
    (pp. 1-108)

    Six manuscripts of Ælfric’s work on the twelve abuses are extant and they fall into two groups of three manuscripts, one group containing the stand-alone short treatiseDe duodecim abusiuisand the other a composite text composed of an introductory paragraph and an account of the eight chief vices and eight chief virtues, corresponding to Ælfric’sLSXVI, lines 267–381, followed by a text of the entireDe duodecim abusiuis. I will refer to this composite text asDe octo uitiis.¹ The manuscripts in the first group are Oxford, Bodleian Library, Hatton 115 (P), CCCC 303 (C) and British...

  9. DE DUODECIM ABUSIVIS Text and Translation
    (pp. 109-138)

    There are three manuscripts of the stand-alone text of Ælfric’sDe duodecim abusiuis: P, fols. 116–21, C, pp. 296–301, and G, fols. 15–21. Of these, only G has already been edited, in the edition of the entire manuscript by Warner inEarly English Homilies.¹ The twelve abuses text also forms part of the composite text in R, S and Xi.

    P has been chosen as the base manuscript for this edition. It is the earliest manuscript of the stand-alone text, and, apart from some short omissions which can be supplied from the other manuscripts, it generally offers...

  10. DE OCTO VITIIS ET DE DUODECIM ABUSIVIS GRADUS Text and Translation
    (pp. 139-178)

    There are three manuscripts of the composite text which addsDe duodecim abusiuisto the account of the eight vices and virtues: R, pp. 73–88, S, pp. 329–47, and Xi, fols. 37v–45r. R and Xihave already been edited by Morris¹ and Xiagain in Sarah O’Brien’s unpublished thesis. These three manuscripts are the only ones to have the opening paragraph, added when the composite text was put together.² In addition to this, we have four further manuscripts of the vices and virtues section of the text: W, C and L all include this as part of...

  11. De duodecim abusivis: Latin Text (Oxford, Jesus College, MS 3)
    (pp. 179-190)

    As pointed out in the introductory chapter, we have no pre-Conquest Latin manuscript ofDe duodecim abusiuisfrom England. The earliest surviving manuscript from England is probably Salisbury, Cathedral Library, 168, but this is a text of the Augustine recension, whereas Ælfric certainly used a manuscript of the Cyprian recension. I have chosen, therefore, to transcribe the text from Oxford, Jesus College 3, fols. 120v–128r, as a good example of the kind of text that Ælfric used: this is a text of the Cyprian recension, in a manuscript written in England (probably Cirencester) in the twelfth century.

    The text...

  12. Bibliography
    (pp. 191-196)
  13. Index
    (pp. 197-201)
  14. Back Matter
    (pp. 202-203)