Richard Rolle - the Yorkshire hermit, visionary and transmitter of religious counsel - was widely recognised in the later English Middle Ages as a major spiritual author. However, this influential figure poses difficulties for scholars and remains a largely untapped literary resource. Encompassing over one hundred and twenty books, Rolle's work is central to the largely uninvestigated sacred culture of that period and provides scholars with a rich source of insight. Ralph Hanna has collected and catalogued this important body of work following detailed research of the manuscript evidence over two decades. Rolle's status makes it appropriate that he will be the only Middle English author other than Chaucer to have an author-based bibliography. The catalogue describes each of Rolle's books and includes full details of contents and codicology. The book also includes an introduction to Rolle’s work explaining its significance, examining the transmission of his writings, and providing a guide to the conventions of presentation used in the catalogue. A series of indexes provides useful additional resources.
Ralph Hanna is Professor of Palaeography (Emeritus) and Emeritus Fellow at Keble College, Oxford. He is a former Guggenheim Fellow, former Fellow of the Radcliffe Institute (Harvard University), and winner of the British Academy Sir Israel Gollancz Prize for English Language 2015. His many books with Liverpool University Press include John Ridewall, Fulgentius metaforalis (2023), Looking at Medieval Books: Learning to See (2023), Robert Holcot, exegete (2021) and Malachy the Irishman, On Poison (2020).