Drawing on the uncompleted edition by E.J. Dobson, with a glossary and additional notes by Richard Dance. The early thirteenth-century guide for women recluses, Ancrene Wisse, is not only the major surviving work of early Middle English prose, and one which was influential throughout the medieval period; it was an important document in the history of European pastoral literature. This edition is the first to draw upon the evidence of all surviving manuscripts, using a corrected version of the Corpus text as a point of entry' to the text's history, as it was revised and adapted by its author and successors for the needs of changing audiences. This first volume contains the text and full critical apparatus; the second volume (forthcoming) will contain the General Introduction, setting the work in its broad cultural and institutional context. Bella Millett is Reader in English at the University of Southampton.
Books can be attributed to "Anonymous" for several reasons:
* They are officially published under that name * They are traditional stories not attributed to a specific author * They are religious texts not generally attributed to a specific author
Books whose authorship is merely uncertain should be attributed to Unknown.