sehepunkte 26 (2026), Nr. 5

Richard Rolle: Postille super novem lectiones mortuorum

Andrew Klaeber's edition of Richard Rolle's Postille super novem lectiones mortuorum with an English mirror translation is a welcome achievement of Rolle scholarship. Furthermore, as the preface announces (xi), the volume presumably signals the commencement of long-awaited critical editions of other Rollean writings. The necessity of the volume is explained by the surprising lack of reliable critical editions of one of the greatest devotional-mystical authorities in late medieval England, as reflected by a review of the state of Rollean philology (xxi-xxii), and by the rise of a new generation of Rolle scholars (xv) whose expertise has greatly contributed to the publication. The new edition of the Postille sets a high standard for the forthcoming editors of Rolle.

A four-part Introduction contextualises Rolle's work in the life and œuvre of the mystic and in the manuscript dissemination with reflections on Malcolm Moyes' single-manuscript edition from 1988. The first section of the Introduction on author and work relates the Postille to Rolle's presentiment of his own death as alleged by two early fifteenth-century manuscript annotations. This intriguing episode may add biographic confirmation to Kraebel's very convincing argument that "[t]he Postille is [...] one of the last works, and perhaps the last work, that Rolle composed in Latin, and it is hard to avoid the sense that he wrote them with his own impending death in mind" (xxxii-xxxiii). Kraebel's leitmotif of the impending death directs the reader's attention to the author's lived experience and the impact of this experience on Rolle's "pursuit of 'a meditative form'" (xxxvii). As Kraebel observes, the postille, a new genre of biblical exposition in the 14th century (which also justifies Kraebel's choice of the title for Rolle's writing as opposed to Moyes' expositio), allowed a fragmented style of comment that defocused the biblical text as a whole and focused more on the details that appealed to the subjectivity of the reader. The experiment with a novel form allows Rolle to play with voices, assuming the position of various personae (both individual and collective, saved and damned) in responding to the verses from the Book of Job.

Sections 2 and 3 of the Introduction present the twelve principal manuscript and early print witnesses out of forty-seven full manuscript versions, two abridgements, and three early prints. Klaeber's codicological expertise is clear in his meticulously detailed manuscript descriptions, exhibiting particular sensitivity to scribal hands, annotations, and the collation of manuscripts. The discussion of the dissemination provides due evidence for the activity of "early collectors", resulting "in an unusual number of independent lines of descent from the authorial text" (cxiv), a pattern that is unarguably supported by the fact that "Rolle worked outside of [...] institutional structures and therefore lacked ready access to [religious houses'] channels of publication" (cxiii). The carefully documented classification of manuscripts not only validates the cohesion of established groups but also accentuates startling features of the history of dissemination, including the dependence of a Cologne early print (Novesianus, 1536) on a Yorkshire manuscript, or the inclusion of (probably) authorial marginalia by the scribe of α, adding further annotations to these passages. This set of annotations, along with another set from a different line of commentary tradition, are provided in the appendices. The discussion is illustrated by twelve colour plates for each of the twelve principal witnesses of Rolle's text.

The concluding section of the Introduction explains the method of the selection of manuscripts, which is based on the variants of Lesson Three. The editorial conventions emphasise minimal intervention. The bilingual edition is impeccably formatted to suit the various textual layers of the lemmatised commentary (biblical verses commented in all capitals, Rolle's commentary in roman, and direct quotes from other parts of the Bible in italics). The English translation masterfully accompanies the Latin text, respecting the page-to-page correspondence of the mirror translation, and adeptly navigates syntactically demanding passages (e.g., 141).

On occasion, the English text is slightly more verbose than is necessary (e.g., modum annectit et dicit (50/61-62): "he goes on to specify the manner in which he will speak" (51)). While I could not detect any typo in the Latin text, the English translation contains some contestable solutions or accidental mistakes. A missing negation makes the meaning of a Latin clause confused (ne currens fatigetur (14/170): "so that he does grow tired from running" (15)). The suggestion that time "continues" (215), when the Latin has cum stare cernitur (212/81) arbitrarily changes the original meaning. The translation of "spiritual elite" (53) for ab altis (52/82-83) is slightly anachronistic. The translation also attests to the challenges faced by contemporary English in relation to gendered pronouns and de-gendering collective references to humans. The translation employs the formulae "men and women" (133, 195) or "man and woman" (147) for collective plurals (de senibus, fragiles, and nullus) and the indefinite pronoun, reflecting contemporary trends in English rather than Rolle's linguistic reflexes. However, the balance of the translation is definitely positive, time and again providing wittier solutions than Rolle's text (e.g., "vomited from his wretched body" (179) for expulsus a suo miserabili corpore (178/247) or "[the devil's] lackies" (191) for ex parte eius (190/109)).

As each new critical edition is a gesture of inviting new reflections, I am confident that Klaeber's edition and study of Rolle's Postille will have an impact on scholarly views of Rolle's oeuvre. If this is indeed the voice(s) of "old" or "mature" Rolle, as also suggested by the diatribes against youth (130-132, 170), he distils the essential from his preceding Latin writings, such as his obsessive resentment of backbiters, his abhorrence of women, his Doomsday scenarios, his warnings against judging anyone on the basis of seeming, and his sonorous diction with beautiful (but not excessive) chains of alliteration, repetitions, and chiasmi. Concurrently, "old" Rolle maintains his youthful spirit of experimentation, engaging the reader with a relentless play with voices and dramatic effect that calls for a discussion of Rolle's commentary method in the light of modern bibliotherapeutic approaches to literature. Finally, my greatest treasure in the gold mine of the Postille is Rolle's comment on Job 10:20 in Lesson Nine (214), in which I am inclined to see an attempt to construct a mantra-like prayer built on the threefold repetition of pauci - breues - nichil across three sentences. This expression of self-annihilation may be a precursor to the mantra-practices of the apophatic Cloud of Unknowing a generation later.