Revelations of Divine Love Julian of Norwich

The book now commonly known as Revelations of Divine Love was written in manuscript form by Julian in two versions, now known as the Long Text and the Short Text, both of which contain an account of each of her revelations.[28] They were written whilst she was living as an anchoress, enclosed in her cell attached to St Julian's Church, with the Short Text being completed soon after Julian had recovered from her illness. Complete versions of the extended version of her writings known as the Long Text—in which she developed her ideas over a period of decades—survive in the form of three separate manuscripts.[29] Three partial copies of the Long Text are also known to exist.[30]

The Short Text is known from a single manuscript. The number of copies of the Long Text that once existed, but are now lost, is not known: Windeatt refers to the three surviving manuscripts of the Long Text as being copied "perhaps from now-lost medieval manuscripts or copies of these",[28] and the authors Nicholas Watson and Jacqueline Jenkins acknowledge the existence of unknown "earliest copies".[31]

The Long Text

The Long Text does not seem to have been widely circulated in late medieval England. The one surviving medieval manuscript, the mid- to late‑fifteenth century Westminster Manuscript, contains a portion of the Long Text, refashioned as a didactic treatise on contemplation.[32]

The three complete manuscripts of the text fall into two groups, with slightly different readings. The late-16th century Brigittine Long Text manuscript was produced by exiled nuns in the Antwerp region. Now referred to as "MS Fonds Anglais 40" (previously known as "Regius 8297") or simply the Paris Manuscript, and consisting solely of a copy of Julian's Long Text, it resides in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris.[33] The other two surviving manuscripts, "Sloane MS 2499"[34] and "Sloane MS 3705",[35] now form part of the British Library's Sloane Collection.[36] The Paris Manuscript and "Sloane MS 2499" are named by Watson and Jenkins as "the main witnesses to the text".[37]

Provenance of the Long Text manuscripts

The Paris Manuscript (BnF fonds anglais 40), a manuscript consisting of the Long Text, was probably copied near Antwerp in imitation of an early-sixteenth-century hand in c.1580, travelled from there to Rouen, was sold by the Bridgettine monastic community, and was then owned by Jean Bigot of Rouen during the second half of the 17th century, before being bought for the French royal collection in 1706.[38]

A number of manuscripts can be associated with exiled English Benedictine nuns based at the French town of Cambrai:[39]

• BL Sloane MS 2499, a version of the Long Text, was probably copied c.1650 by Mother Anne Clementina Cary (died 1671), of the Paris convent that was founded as the sister house of Cambrai in 1651. It seems to follow a different manuscript from the one which the Paris Manuscript follows.[40]
• BL Stowe MS 42, a version of the Long Text, was written sometime between 1650 and 1670 (or possibly up to 1700). It served either as exemplar text for Cressy's 1670 printed edition of the Long Text, or possibly a hand-written copy of Cressy. It was possessed in turn by: John Haddon Hindley; the 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos and his son the 2nd duke; and Bertram Ashburnham, the 4th Earl of Ashburnham and his son the 5th Earl, from whom the British Museum purchased the manuscripts in 1883.[41][42]
• The manuscript now known as "Upholland MS" was possibly copied in the 1670s or 1680s by the exiled English Benedictine nun Barbara Constable (1617–1684) in Cambrai. A copy of this manuscript is known to have been kept at Stanbrook Abbey, part of an anthology containing fragments copied from Cressy's Long Text.[43][44] According to the author Elisabeth Dutton, "Upholland MS" was based on a "Paris-like" version of the Long Text.[45] Once owned by St Joseph's College, Up Holland, and now privately owned and kept at an unknown location, it is a set of excerpts from Julian's book. The text used to make the copy appears to be the same as that Cressy which used for his 1670 translation.[46]
• BL Sloane MS 3705, a version of the Long Text, was copied from BL Sloane MS 2499 later in the 17th century or early 18th century by Cambrai nuns for use in Paris.[47]
• St Mary's Abbey, Colwich, "MS Baker 18", known as the Gascoigne fragments, was copied by Sister Margaret Gascoigne (1608–37) of Cambrai. Consisting of meditations on fragments of four chapters of the Long Text based on the Paris manuscript, it arrived in England after the French Revolution.[48]

The Westminster Manuscript

The one surviving medieval manuscript to contain Julian's writings, the mid- to late-fifteenth-century Westminster Manuscript, contains a portion version of the Long Text, refashioned as a didactic treatise on contemplation.[32]

It is part of a medieval florilegium, now known as "Westminster Cathedral Treasury, MS 4", which was inscribed on parchment c.1450–1500.[49] The manuscript has '1368' written on the opening folio. Along with Revelations of Divine Love, "Westminster Cathedral Treasury, MS 4" also contains commentaries on Psalms 90 and 91, purportedly by the 14th century Augustinian mystic Walter Hilton, and a compilation of Hilton's The Scale of Perfection. During the 16th century it was owned by the Catholic Lowe family. In 1821, Bishop James Bramson made a hand calculation of the age of the manuscript on its endpaper.[50][49] Rediscovered in August 1955, it is kept in the archives of Westminster Abbey, on loan from Westminster Cathedral.[49]

The Short Text

It is thought unlikely that the Short Text, thought to have been completed shortly after Julian's recovery from her illness in 1373, was ever read by others whilst she was still alive. The text was instead copied after her death, and then largely forgotten.[51][52] It remained hidden following the English Reformation, as ownership of any copies of her work would have been considered heretical by the religious authorities.[53]

The sole surviving medieval copy of the Short Text was—until its reappearance in 1910—thought to have been lost.[54] It is part of an anthology of theological works in Middle English, now known as "Additional MS 37790". It was copied c.1450 by James Grenehalgh (born c.1470) for the Carthusian community at Syon Abbey.[55] The manuscript acknowledges Julian as the author of the Short Text and includes the date 1413.[56]

The manuscript was obtained for the library of the English astrologer and astronomer Vincent Wing (1619–1668) and was at a later date acquired by the English antiquary Francis Peck (d. 1743). The copy is known to have been seen by Francis Blomefield when the manuscript was in Peck's possession,[57] as Blomefield quoted from it in his 1745 work An essay towards a topographical history of the county of Norfolk. During the eighteenth century it was owned by the scientist and collector William Constable (1721–91) of Burton Constable Hall, in Yorkshire, before being sold on 14 June 1889 at Sotheby's to the politician and collector Lord Amherst of Hackney (1835–1909).[54] As part of the sale of the library of Lord Amherst of Hackney, which took place on 24 March 1910, the manuscript was purchased by the British Museum.[56] "Additional MS 37790"—once known as the Amherst Manuscript—is now held in the British Library in London.[58][24]