Practical Writing in Late Middle English: A Treatise on Perilous Days in London, Wellcome Library, MS 411 (ff. 18v-19r).

Abstract

The present article pursues the study and edition of an anonymous treatise on perilous days, held in folios 18v-19r of London, Wellcome Library, MS 411. The codex contains a collection of practical treatises in English and Latin, both in verse and prose, dating from the late fifteenth century. Among the contents in English, we find a prognostication in verse according to the day on which Christmas Day falls (ff. 1r-2r), an anonymous version of The Wise Book of Astronomy and Philosophy (ff. 32r-37v) (see Author 2019) and an anonymous treatise on venomous bites (ff. 56r-61r) (see Author 2022). Despite the importance of these texts at different levels—cultural, historical, linguistic—, their study has been traditionally neglected and only recently have they started to receive scholarly interest. This proposal tries to fill the void by providing a multi-faceted analysis and the first edition of the treatise under consideration, which remains unedited so far. The objectives are the following: (i) to investigate the transmission and sources of the treatise as well as the ownership and provenance of the manuscript; (ii) to discuss the principal codicological and palaeographical features of the folios housing the treatise, including script, decoration, punctuation, etc.; (iii) to look into the linguistic provenance of the text following eLALME’s (Benskin et al. 2013) methodology in order to pinpoint its dialectal origin; and (iv) to offer a semi-diplomatic edition of it. The examination of all these aspects will hopefully contribute to improving our knowledge of Late Middle English practical writing.