Jankyn's Book of Wikked Wyves

Seven Commentaries on Walter Map's "Dissuasio Valerii"

Ralph Hanna III, Traugott Lawler

• Publisher: University of Georgia Press
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN:
  9780820346106
• eBook ISBN:
  9780820346403
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European Medieval History
• Index: History

In volume 1 of Jankyn's Book of Wikked Wyves (Georgia, 1997), Ralph Hanna and Traugott Lawler presented authoritative versions of three medieval texts invoked by Jankyn (fifth husband of the Wife of Bath) in The Canterbury Tales. In Jankyn's Book, volume 2, Lawler and Hanna revisit one of those texts by way of presenting all the known contemporary commentaries on it.

The text is Walter Map's "Dissuasio Valerii," that is, "The Letter of Valerius to His Friend Ruffinus, Dissuading Him from Marrying." Included in Jankyn's Book, volume 2, are seven commentaries on "Dissuasio Valerii," edited from all known manuscripts and presented in their Latin text with English translation on the facing page. Each commentary opens with a headnote. Variants are reported at the bottom of the translation pages, and full explanatory notes appear after the texts, along with a bibliography and index of sources.

In their introduction, Lawler and Hanna discuss what is known about the authors of the commentaries. Four are unknown, although one of these is almost certainly a Dominican. Of the three known authors, two are Dominicans (Eneas of Siena and the brilliant Englishman Nicholas Trivet), and one is Franciscan (John Ridewall). In addition, the editors discuss the likely readerships of the commentaries—the four humanist texts, which explicate Map's witty and allusive Latin and which were for use in school, and the three moralizing texts, which mount eloquent defenses of women and which were for use mainly by the clergy.

While Lawler and Hanna's immediate aim is to give readers of Chaucer the fullest possible background for understanding his satire on antifeminism in "The Wife of Bath's Prologue," the "Dissuasio Valerii" commentaries extend significantly our understanding of medieval attitudes, in general, toward women and marriage.

COMMENTARY THREE:
NICHOLAS TRIVET

The commentary by Nicholas Trivet, the English Dominican polymath (d. c. 1335), appears in ten manuscripts, in one of which it is substantially revised. They are:

Cambridge, Clare College N.2.5 (formerly Clare 14; our C1, here called simply C) our copy-text, first quarter of the fourteenth century. The “Dissuasio” and the commentary are presented skillfully together on ff. 62v-78, the text in larger characters and with more space between lines, written in narrow columns, typically on the left side of the page and taking up less than a third of it; the text is divided according to the sense, so that each segment is a unified whole, and not according to the amount of commentary that goes with it; nevertheless, by varying the width of the column of text the scribe has generally managed to keep the commentary that goes with each segment next to it. Generally, he starts both on the same line, and if the commentary is long he completes it in a series of whole-page-wide lines before he enters the next column of text, so that its commentary can start on the same line with it. See the frontispiece. No other manuscript we have, of this or any other commentary, presents text and commentary so carefully integrated. The commentary Hoc contra malos religiosos follows on ff. 78v-84, in the same hand.

Cambridge, St. John’s College, E.12 (115), c. 1400 (J). The “Dissuasio” and commentary alternate, sometimes virtually sentence by sentence, sometimes in longer, often rather arbitrary segments (and Trivet’s commentary alternates with Ridewall’s—his first, Ridewall’s second) on ff. 1-42v; as in C, the commentary Hoc contra malos religiosos follows in the same hand, on ff. 42v-57.

Oxford, Bodleian Library Additional A.44, first quarter of the thirteenth century (text), fifteenth century (commentary) (our A¹, here called simply A). The text is on ff. 25-29B; the commentary was inserted later in front of the text, which it refers to in the lemmas as ut infra; it now forms ff. 17-24v, but ends in midsentence at Amice 624, having lost, apparently, an entire quire. However, the next word, ethicum, appears as a boxed catchword below the line, in the hand of the scribe; since there are no other catchwords, it may be that the scribe stopped here, marked his place with the catchword—and never resumed.

Oxford, Bodleian Library Digby 11, mid-fourteenth century (our Dg¹, here called simply Dg). The “Dissuasio” and commentary alternate, in virtually the same segments as in C, on ff. 70-85v, where the scribe ceased writing after five lines, at aptus 1444. The rest of f. 85v is blank, as are ff. 86-91v, as if left to receive the remaining text and commentary.

Cambridge, University Library Mm.l.18, fifteenth century (Mm). The “Dissuasio” is on ff. 103-8, with excerpts from Trivet’s commentary in the margins and between the lines, though these almost disappear after f. 104r. The commentary follows on ff. 110-121v, with some additions inserted on a half-sheet which is now folio 109.

Manchester, Chetham’s Library 8003, fifteenth century (Ch). The “Dissuasio” and commentary alternate—chapter by chapter according to Trivet’s division of the text into ten chapters, except that chapters seven and eight are run together, as are chapters nine and ten—on ff. 1-15v. It breaks off, however, after line 1080, where Trivet’s commentary is suddenly replaced by Ridewall’s, beginning at Ridewall 544-45, De ista Medea.

Durham, Cathedral Library B.II.3, fourteenth century (our Dr, here called simply D). The “Dissuasio” and commentary alternate, in an arbitrary fashion similar to J’s, on ff. 143-52.

Erfurt, Wissenschaftliche Bibliothek der Stadt, Amplonianum Folio 71, c. 1400 (no siglum assigned in our list; here called E). The “Dissuasio” and commentary alternate, in segments of varying length somewhat like D’s, on ff. 12vb-21rb. Incipit: “Sequitur exposicio epistole valerii ad ruphinum; et est nicolai trevetht.”

Oxford, Lincoln College 81, c. 1400 (Lo). The “Dissuasio” and commentary alternate, in the same segments as in D, on ff. 94-111. In a table of contents on the first page of the manuscrip...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Commentary One: “Grues, ut dicit Ysodorus”
• Commentary Two: John Ridewall
• Commentary Three: Nicholas Trivet
• Commentary Four: “Valerius qui dicitur parvus”
• Commentary Five: “Hoc contra malos religiosos”
• Commentary Six: Lambeth 330 (selections)
• Commentary Seven: Eneas of Siena
• Notes
• Bibliography and Abbreviations
• Index of Sources
• Footnotes