Cultures of Piety

Devotional Texts in late medieval England were notable for their flamboyant piety and their preoccupation with the tortured body of Christ and the grief of the Virgin Mary. Generations of readers seeking the divine internalized and shaped the "cultures of piety" represented by these works. Anne Clark Bartlett and Thomas H. Bestul here gather seven diverse examples of this literature, all written in the period 1350-1450, one in Anglo-Norman, the remainder in Middle English. (The volume also includes an appendix containing the original texts of the latter six pieces.) The resulting collection illustrates the polyglottal, conflicting, and often polemical nature of devotional culture in the Middle Ages. It also provides a valuable context for and interesting counterpoint to the Canterbury Tales and other classic works of late medieval England, which, the editors assert, were far outnumbered by writings of popular piety. Book jacket.