Four Blickling homilies

This thesis offers editions of four of the Old English homilies found in the Buickling manuscript, Princeton, Scheide Library ms 71. The four homilies edited are those numbered I, XIV, XV, and XVI, composed for the feasts of the Annunciation, of the birth of John the Baptist, of Saints Peter and Paul, and of Saint Michael, respectively. Each of these homilies is uniquely transmitted in the Buickling manuscript, follows known Latin sources, and presents many textual problems largely neglected in earlier editions and studies. Careful comparison of the various Latin sources, here printed together with the edited texts of the homilies, reveals the extent of these textual problems and is the basis of many of the emendations newly proposed.;The editions of the several homilies each begin with an introduction in which particular palaeographical details, the Latin sources, and notable stylistic or linguistic features are discussed. The edited text itself follows, supplied with both textual and source apparatuses. A translation of the homily is next; last, the textual notes, mostly concerned with textual problems.;There are several parts to the introduction. A brief description of the manuscript mentions general codicological features. The language of the homilies is treated in three sections, on spellings, inflections, and lexicon, in all of which characteristically Anglian, and sometimes specifically Mercian, traits are noted. The uncertain date and origin of the four homilies is discussed; lexical similarities between Homilies I and XIV and certain other texts thought to be originally Mercian are brought forward as perhaps indicative of a similar regional origin. In a separate discussion of the origin of the manuscript, the presence throughout it of certain spellings associated with the southeast is noted, and a southeastern origin tentatively suggested. The principles of editing, finally, are outlined, with a description of the cases in which emendation has been attempted. Various examples from the edited texts are given, to illustrate both the nature of the textual problems concerned and the manner of treating them.