The ‘Exhortacion’ from ‘Disce Mori’

Edited from Oxford, Jesus College, MS 39

revised by E A Jones

Book cover: The ‘Exhortacion’ from ‘Disce Mori’

Extent: 119 pages

Publisher: Universitätsverlag Winter

Subjects: Medieval Studies

Series: Middle English Texts

Series volume number: 36

Language: English

(Paperback) (Published)

(January 2006)

ISBN: 9783825352042

6.06 x 9.21 inches

Price: $62.00

In stock

The fifteenth-century English compilation Disce Mori begins as an almost archetypal manual of religious instruction in the tradition of the Somme Le roi/Miroir du monde. However, in its concluding part, or ‘Exhortacion’, it turns to the more specific concerns of its female dedicatee (probably a vowess or recluse, although the text also has some connection with Syon Abbey). In lively and well-organized prose, the compiler moves from a consideration of his reader’s vow, through love of God and the experience of contemplation, before closing with a call for perseverance in the life of perfection. He includes substantial excerpts from the works of Richard Rolle and Walter Hilton, and allusions to and quotations from Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde. This is the first edition of any significant portion of Disce Mori, and includes an introduction and notes detailing the sources of the work, and its relationship with its derivative, Ignorancia Sacerdotum.

  • Revised by E A Jones