Cambridge. Cambridge University Library, MS Gg.4.31

Source

Cambridge Digital Library

Library

Cambridge. Cambridge University Library

Shelfmark

• MS Gg.4.31

Biblissima authority file

• https://data.biblissima.fr/entity/Q210121

Date

• Sixteenth century C.E.

Language

• Middle English

Title

• The Vision of Piers Plowman
• Table of contents for Piers Plowman
• A goodly prayer

Agent

• Preferred form

  • William Langland (1325?-1390?)

  Role

  • Author

  Original form

  • William Langland (c.1330-1400?)
  • Langland, William, 1330?-1400?

  Other form

  • William Langland
  • Langland, William
  • Langland, William, 1330?-1400?, author.

  Biblissima portal

  • https://portail.biblissima.fr/en/ark:/43093/pdata915bb4a6bcf30a1783809085ef87d4f451e0a26e

  Biblissima authority file

  • https://data.biblissima.fr/entity/Q16597

• Preferred form

  • Robert Morgan (1608-1673)

  Original form

  • Robert Morgan (1608-1673)
  • Morgan, Robert, 1608-1673

  Biblissima authority file

  • https://data.biblissima.fr/entity/Q32610

Description

• A sixteenth-century copy of the Vision of Piers Plowman, one of the most famous medieval texts in English, by the otherwise largely unknown figure, William Langland. Written in the late fourteenth century, this allegorical dream vision poem offers both a quest of personal purification, and a critique of lax morals at all levels of Langland's society. It details the encounters of a pilgrim, Will, with various allegorical figures representing the soul's journey to salvation and the perils along the way; this varied and colourful cast of characters includes the mysterious Piers the plowman, who has a strong connection to Christ.

  The poem survives in more than 50 manuscripts in three distinct versions, labelled A, B and C. CUL MS Gg.4.31 is a copy of the most widely accepted and edited version, the B text. Its significance primarily lies in the evidence it offers of continued interest in and engagement with the text in the sixteenth century, possibly due to its critique of the immorality of lax clergy. Gg.4.31 is unique in containing a table of contents after the main text, on folio 101v onwards, which may represent an otherwise unattested personal engagement with the Piers Plowman text on the part of the original scribe, or annotator who signs him/herself W. H. There is also a short devotional poem at the end of the manuscript.

Rights

• Provided by Cambridge University Library. Zooming image © University Library, All rights reserved. Images made available for download are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License (CC BY-NC 3.0) This metadata is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.

License

• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/

Digitisation

• http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-GG-00004-00031/1

Manifest URL

• https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/iiif/MS-GG-00004-00031