Book Series Textes vernaculaires du moyen âge, vol. 26

The Anglo-Norman Bible’s Book of Joshua

A Critical Edition (BL Royal 1 C III)

Brent A. Pitts

  • Pages: 208 p.
  • Size:156 x 234 mm
  • Illustrations:1 b/w
  • Language(s):English, Middle English
  • Publication Year:2020

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  • ISBN: 978-2-503-59133-9
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BIO

Brent A. Pitts is professor of French at Meredith College, Raleigh, North Carolina.

Summary

The Anglo-Norman Bible’s Joshua includes tales of spies, giants, the prostitute Rahab, the punishment of Achan, oracles, and Joshua’s brilliant military victories. Joshua stops the sun. The first half of the book relates Joshua’s stunning conquests in Canaan. The second half, the apportionment of the land among the tribes, detailed geographical surveys of territorial boundaries, and the death of Joshua.

Skilful, well-paced story telling is a feature of the ANB’s Joshua. To the accounts of Rahab and Achan we may add the chronicle of Joshua’s successful, crushing campaign in the wake of the destruction of Makkedah. In rapid succession, and in an annalistic style involving staccato repetition of key phrases, the narrator relates the destruction of Libnah, Lachish, Eglon, Hebron, and Debir.

The text of the ANB’s Joshua is extant in British Library Royal 1 C III (base manuscript, L) and Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS français 1 (P), both c. 1350 and both the Bibles of kings. L belonged at some point in the fifteenth century to Reading’s Benedictine abbey, entering the royal library in 1530. Characteristic of L is its occasional insertion of short glosses in English or Latin to clarify or correct the Anglo-Norman text. An illustrated text, P was prepared by an English workshop for the fourth baron de Welles, John, and his wife, Maud, daughter of William, Lord Ros. This is clearly the Bible of a wealthy and well-connected English family. After the Welles family, the manuscript belonged to Louis de Bruges († 1492), then to King Louis XII of France.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements
Abbreviations

INTRODUCTION 
The Old Testament book of Joshua
Manuscripts of the Anglo-Norman Bible’s book of Joshua
L’s Middle English and Latin glosses

LANGUAGE
Orthography
Verbs
Syntax
Morphology
Lexis
Geography, terrain, and family in the Anglo-Norman Bible’s book of Joshua
Joshua in medieval culture
Joshua in medieval exegesis
Editorial considerations
Bibliography

THE ANGLO-NORMAN BIBLE’S BOOK OF JOSHUA
Rejected readings and palæographical notes
Critical notes

APPENDICES 

A. A hypothetical earlier manuscript 
B. Comparison of and P
C. Divergences in word-choice in L and P 
D. Glossary
E. Geographical names in the Anglo-Norman Bible’s book of Joshua