The Book of Margery Kempe, Chapter 18 (excerpt)

''The Book of Margery Kempe'' is a medieval text attributed to Margery Kempe, an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι� ...

mystic and

pilgrim A pilgrim (from the Latin ''peregrinus'') is a traveler (literally one who has come from afar) who is on a journey to a holy place. Typically, this is a physical journey (often on foot) to some place of special significance to the adherent of ...

who lived at the turn of the fifteenth century. It details Kempe's life, her travels, her alleged experiences of divine revelation (including her visions of interacting with

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and relig ...

as well as other biblical figures), and her presence at key biblical events such as the Nativity and the Crucifixion.

Content

Kempe's book is written in the third person, employing the phrase "this creature" when referring to Kempe in order to display humility before God. Kempe claimed to be illiterate and her book was dictated to two scribes who set it down. Modern editions of Kempe's book are based on a manuscript copied by a

scribe A scribe is a person who serves as a professional copyist, especially one who made copies of manuscripts before the invention of automatic printing. The profession of the scribe, previously widespread across cultures, lost most of its promi ...

named Salthows sometime in the fifteenth century (the original manuscript has been lost). Recent research by

Anthony Bale Anthony Bale is an English medievalist. Biography He is Professor of Medieval Studies at Birkbeck, University of London and from 2017 to 2021 was Executive Dean of the School of Arts, and has written widely on medieval Christian-Jewish relation ...

has suggested that Salthows was one Richard Salthouse, a monk at Norwich’s cathedral priory. The Salthows manuscript, then owned by Colonel W. Butler-Bowdon, was found in a country-house in

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

in the early 1930s, and was identified as Margery Kempe’s book by

Hope Emily Allen Hope Emily Allen (1883–1960), was an American scholar of medieval history who is best known for her research on the 14th-century English mystic Richard Rolle and for her discovery of a manuscript of the Book of Margery Kempe. Early life and ed ...

, who was instrumental in the publication of the second modern edition of the text. The manuscript was purchased by the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the Briti ...

from Captain Maurice E. Butler Bowdon (1910-1984) at an auction held by

Sotheby's Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...

in London on 24 June 1980. Prior to the discovery of the full text, all that was known of Kempe's book were pamphlets published by

Wynkyn de Worde Wynkyn de Worde (died 1534) was a printer and publisher in London known for his work with William Caxton, and is recognised as the first to popularise the products of the printing press in England. Name Wynkyn de Worde was a German immigra ...

in 1501 and Henry Pepwell in 1521 which contained excerpts from ''The Book of Margery Kempe''. Kempe's book is widely cited as the first

autobiography An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...

in English; however, scholars disagree on whether it can accurately be called an autobiography, or whether it would be more accurately classified as a

confession of faith A creed, also known as a confession of faith, a symbol, or a statement of faith, is a statement of the shared beliefs of a community (often a religious community) in a form which is structured by subjects which summarize its core tenets. The ea ...

or autohagiography.

Manuscript

Modern editions and translations

*Kempe, Margery. ''The Book of Margery Kempe'', ed. Sanford Brown Meech, with prefatory note by

(EETS. Original series; no. 212). London: Oxford University Press, 1940. *Kempe, Margery. ''The Book of Margery Kempe'', trans. Barry Windeatt. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1985. *Kempe, Margery. ''The Book of Margery Kempe: The Autobiography of the Wild Woman of God'', trans. Tony D. Triggs. Barnhart: Liguori Publications, 1995; Tunbridge Wells: Burns and Oates, 1995. *Kempe, Margery
''The Book of Margery Kempe''
ed. Lynn Staley. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 1996. *Kempe, Margery. ''The Book of Margery Kempe: A New Translation'', trans. John Skinner. New York: Image Books/Doubleday, 1998. *Kempe, Margery. ''The Book of Margery Kempe: A New Translation, Contexts and Criticism'', trans. and ed., Lynn Staley. New York: Norton, 2001. *Kempe, Margery
''The Book of Margery Kempe''
trans. Anthony Bale. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Book of Margery Kempe 1430s books 15th-century Christian texts 1501 books British autobiographies Religious autobiographies Pilgrimage accounts