The Mediaeval Journal

This article examines the relationship between the Bonifatii et Lulli Epistolae (BLE) and the Vita Bonifatii auctore Willibaldo, adopting a literary perspective in order to consider how the differing agendas of the BLE and the Vita Bonifatii complicate modern scholarship’s understanding of that relationship. In the attempt to deepen such knowledge, this paper concerns itself primarily with the life’s hagiographic use of the BLE, rather than, as has been more usual, the philological and historical dynamics of its preservation. The ultimate aim is to lay out a more rigorous and systematic framework for considering these parallels which takes into account the often radically different functions of epistolary records and hagiography.

The following article re-examines the so-called ‘Strath Caruin’ awdl, a stanza preserved in the thirteenth-century Welsh manuscript, Llyfr Aneirin, ‘the Book of Aneirin’. Focus is on the relationship between the content of this awdl and other early Welsh material pertaining to Northern Britain, principally the Welsh Latin annals, Annales Cambriae, but also in vernacular texts. It is argued that the ‘Strath Caruin’ awdl is difficult to anchor within this wider tradition, and that its content, while corroborated by other extant sources, does not seem to be derived from them.

The Office of the Passion attributed to St Francis of Assisi presents a remarkable pastiche of psalms apparently intended to be read as if spoken by Christ during the hours of his passion. This article considers how Francis, otherwise unschooled in the intricacies of medieval biblical exegesis, may have had access to the interpretative tradition according to which the psalms that he used in his Office were assigned to Christ, and how this tradition may have contributed to his understanding of what it meant to follow in the footsteps of Christ.

This essay concerns a previously unexamined sermon by the Franciscan preacher Giovanni Coltellini da Bologna (c. 1355-1437) delivered in the presence of the Emperor Sigismund following the imperial coronation in 1433. The text provides insight into contemporary papal-imperial relations, the desires of the papacy, and the place of Coltellini’s hometown of Bologna within these, as well as developments in sermon style and technique. At the same time, however, its existence raises intriguing questions concerning the actual delivery of the sermon, the reason behind the selection of Coltellini (a previously well-known figure within Bologna, but one who had disappeared from the public eye for fifteen years), the roles of ecclesiastical ambassadors, and the use of preaching and sermons outside of a liturgical context. A further defining feature of the sermon is its heavy reliance on John of Salisbury’s Policraticus, a work on political theory, rather than on scriptural or classical sources. The possible reasons for this novelty are explored. The essay concludes that the sermon was commissioned by, and Coltellini appointed to represent, the papal government rather than the city of Bologna, with a twofold objective: an attempt to persuade Sigismund of the merits of Bologna as part of papal efforts to transfer the Council of Basel to that city; and to convince the new Emperor of his obligations towards the practical (and military) defence of the Church, by which it is understood to mean the papacy.

A site-specific performance relies on the relationship between memory and topography, exploring how the history of a locale can be conveyed to the audience through a dramatic act. By looking at the medieval performances of the York Corpus Christi Play as site-specific, this article shows how York’s topography and the daily uses of the sites along the pageant route enriched the audiences’ reception of the play. In particular, it explores the visual presence of Micklegate Bar as an aide-memoire through which Jerusalem is superimposed on York in a performance of the Skinners’ Entry into Jerusalem at the first playing station. Other factors such as staging and the presence of weekly medieval markets are also considered, including how the presence of the city’s Common Clerk at the first stopping place mimics Zacheus’ role in the pageant. In this way the performance is enriched by the specificity of York’s topography while the play recalls the memories present in the stopping places to enhance the performance.

In the twenty-first century scholars have increasingly drawn attention to the multilingualism of Britain in the last centuries of the Middle Ages. This article further challenges long-held narratives of the ‘triumph’ of English by exploring the ‘making’ of Anglo-Norman and its subsequent marginalization within the academy. It focuses on the reception of the chronicle of Piers Langtoft (c. 1307), largely during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and analyses the processes by which the language in which it was written became culturally, historically, and geographically established - in order that it might be expelled.