Jankyn's Book of Wikked Wyves
Jankyn's Book of Wikked Wyves: Seven Commentaries on Walter Map's "Dissuasio Valerii"
TRAUGOTT LAWLER
RALPH HANNA
KARL YOUNG
ROBERT A. PRATT
Series: The Chaucer Library
Copyright Date: 2014
Published by: University of Georgia Press
Pages: 624
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n5nv
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Book Info
Jankyn's Book of Wikked Wyves
Book Description:

In volume 1 ofJankyn's Book of Wikked Wyves(Georgia, 1997), Ralph Hanna and Traugott Lawler presented authoritative versions of three medieval texts invoked by Jankyn (fifth husband of the Wife of Bath) inThe Canterbury Tales. InJankyn's Book, volume 2, Lawler and Hanna revisit one of those texts by way of presenting all the known contemporary commentaries on it.The text is Walter Map's "Dissuasio Valerii," that is, "The Letter of Valerius to His Friend Ruffinus, Dissuading Him from Marrying." Included in Jankyn's Book, volume 2, are seven commentaries on "Dissuasio Valerii," edited from all known manuscripts and presented in their Latin text with English translation on the facing page. Each commentary opens with a headnote. Variants are reported at the bottom of the translation pages, and full explanatory notes appear after the texts, along with a bibliography and index of sources.In their introduction, Lawler and Hanna discuss what is known about the authors of the commentaries. Four are unknown, although one of these is almost certainly a Dominican. Of the three known authors, two are Dominicans (Eneas of Siena and the brilliant Englishman Nicholas Trivet), and one is Franciscan (John Ridewall). In addition, the editors discuss the likely readerships of the commentaries-the four humanist texts, which explicate Map's witty and allusive Latin and which were for use in school, and the three moralizing texts, which mount eloquent defenses of women and which were for use mainly by the clergy.While Lawler and Hanna's immediate aim is to give readers of Chaucer the fullest possible background for understanding his satire on antifeminism in "The Wife of Bath's Prologue," the "Dissuasio Valerii" commentaries extend significantly our understanding of medieval attitudes, in general, toward women and marriage.

eISBN: 978-0-8203-4640-3
Subjects: Language & Literature, History
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  1. Front Matter
    Front Matter (pp. i-vi)
  2. Table of Contents
    Table of Contents (pp. vii-viii)
  3. FOREWORD
    FOREWORD (pp. ix-x)

    The purpose of the Chaucer Library, from its beginnings in 1946, has been to present the classical and medieval works that the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer knew, translated, or made use of in his writings in versions that were as close as possible to those that were in existence, circulating, and being read by him and his contemporaries. These versions were, of course, not critical editions—they were filled with readings that the original authors did not write, with additions and omissions, and sometimes with glosses and commentaries—and only by reproducing such non-original material can one have a true...

  4. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
    ACKNOWLEDGMENTS (pp. xi-xii)
  5. INTRODUCTION
    INTRODUCTION (pp. 1-14)

    In this our second volume we present the seven commentaries on Walter Map’s “Dissuasio Valerii” that we mention on pp. 7–8 and list on p. 261 of our Volume One. They fall into distinct classes, and we present them accordingly. (For fuller accounts of each commentary, see the individual headnotes. The short names we use here for each are used throughout this volume. The sigla in parentheses, C1 to C7, are those assigned in Volume One, p. 261, and are not used further in this volume.) The first class is humanist or classicizing commentaries, probably intended for school use,...

  6. COMMENTARY ONE: “GRUES, UT DICIT YSODORUS”
    COMMENTARY ONE: “GRUES, UT DICIT YSODORUS” (pp. 15-50)

    Gruesappears independently in two manuscripts and combined with Ridewall’s commentary in three others. The two independent manuscripts are:

    Oxford, Bodley Additional A. 365, first quarter of the fifteenth century. TheDissuasiois on ff. I–3v, the commentary follows on ff. 3v–6v.

    London, British Library Royal 12 D.iii (Rd), also first quarter of the fifteenth century. TheDissuasiois on ff. 145–49, and the commentary follows on ff. 149–152v. Similar in age and format, these two manuscripts are also quite close textually; we call them group α.

    The three Ridewall manuscripts that combine it withGrues...

  7. COMMENTARY TWO: JOHN RIDEWALL
    COMMENTARY TWO: JOHN RIDEWALL (pp. 51-120)

    The commentary attributed to John Ridewall appears separately in ten manuscripts, of which two are incomplete; combined withGruesin three manuscripts; combined with Trivet in one, and in one what was a Trivet commentary suddenly becomes a Ridewall commentary halfway through the text.

    The eight complete separate manuscripts are these (for further details, see Vol. I, pp.262–73):

    Co³ Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 414, pp. 349–66, following the “Dissuasio Valerii” on pp. 343–49; our copy-text.

    Mo⁸ Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, CLM23474, ff. 3vb–7vb, followed by the text on ff. 161–65.

    Du¹ Dublin, Trinity College 115, ff....

  8. COMMENTARY THREE: NICHOLAS TRIVET
    COMMENTARY THREE: NICHOLAS TRIVET (pp. 121-268)

    The commentary by Nicholas Trivet, the English Dominican polymath (d. c. 1335), appears in ten manuscripts, in one of which it is substantially revised.

    They are: Cambridge, Clare College N.2.5 (formerly Clare 14; our C1, here called simply C) our copy-text, first quarter of the fourteenth century. The “Dissuasio” and the commentary are presented skillfully together on ff. 62v–78, the text in larger characters and with more space between lines, written in narrow columns, typically on the left side of the page and taking up less than a third of it; the text is divided according to the amount...

  9. COMMENTARY FOUR: “VALERIUS QUI DICITUR PARVUS”
    COMMENTARY FOUR: “VALERIUS QUI DICITUR PARVUS” (pp. 269-296)

    The commentary that starts “Valerius qui dicitur parvus” (and which we call simplyParvus) survives, unhappily incomplete, only in Oxford, University College 61 (c. 1350), ff. 21v–23v (U). It is preceded on ff. 2–21v by the “Dissuasio” with Trivet’s commentary (in a revised version) interspersed. It is incomplete because a good part of the last page has been torn off. Since it must postdate Trivet’s commentary and theManipulus florum(1306), to which it refers, it must have been composed some time in the first half of the fourteenth centuary.

    Ruth Dean long ago made the suggestion that...

  10. COMMENTARY FIVE: “HOC CONTRA MALOS RELIGIOSOS”
    COMMENTARY FIVE: “HOC CONTRA MALOS RELIGIOSOS” (pp. 297-376)

    The commentary that begins “Hoc contra malos religiosos” survives in two Cambridge manuscripts, Clare College N.2.5 (formerly Clare 14) (our C1, early 14c), ff. 78v–84 and St John’s College E. 12 (115) (our J, late 14/early 15c), ff. 42v–57. Our text is based on C1, the older of the two copies. Neil Cartlidge, who published an edition of “Hoc contra malos religiosos” in 1998 (Cartlidge 1998), used J as his basis, though merely for convenience, as he explains (p. 162). He says the copies are “virtually identical, differing only in minor variations of spelling and word order” (162),...

  11. COMMENTARY SIX: LAMBETH 330 (SELECTIONS)
    COMMENTARY SIX: LAMBETH 330 (SELECTIONS) (pp. 377-450)

    The commentary found in Lambeth Palace 330 is the longest surviving commentary on Map’s “Dissuasio.” But its length is well-matched by the sophistication of its contents and the elaborateness of its presentation. Lambeth Palace 330 is a vellum ms., s. xiv/xv, ii + 115 folios, 280 x 195 mm. The hand is a single textura quadrata, 32 lines per page.

    Contents:

    1. ff. 1-11v: the extensive hortatory prologue to the commentary, inc. “Amicus fidelis, protectio fortis,” Ecclesiastici 6. Dicit Ieronimus super illud Matthei 12, “Omne regnum in se divisum . . . .”¹

    2. ff. 12–106V: the commentary proper,...

  12. COMMENTARY SEVEN: ENEAS OF SIENA
    COMMENTARY SEVEN: ENEAS OF SIENA (pp. 451-494)

    Although the “Dissuasio” had a wide continental circulation, continental reading of the text differed from that in England in one important regard. If surviving manuscripts provide any indication, many English readers read Valerius together with a commentary which would explain its intention and various textual difficulties: almost half the manuscripts of English provenance come so equipped. In contrast, very few continental copies contain such an aid: Trivet’s and Ridewall’s commentaries had limited circulation abroad, and only a single interpretative effort appears to have been made outside England.

    That is the work identified in the rubric in one of its manuscripts,...

  13. NOTES
    NOTES (pp. 495-576)
  14. BIBLIOGRAPHY AND ABBREVIATIONS
    BIBLIOGRAPHY AND ABBREVIATIONS (pp. 577-598)
  15. INDEX OF SOURCES
    INDEX OF SOURCES (pp. 599-605)
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