Peter of Cornwall's Book of Revelations

"This volume succeeds admirably as an introduction to the works of Peter of Cornwall, prior of Holy Trinity, Aldgate, London (c. 1140-1221), with a particular focus on his monumental Liber Reuelationum, preserved uniquely in London, Lambeth Palace Library, MS 51. The authors blend the old with the new in a series of revised articles and a large selection of editions, translations and discussions of unpublished texts, some unique to the Lambeth manuscript. The heart of this study is the publication of the Calendar, which documents the contents of the entire collection of the Liber Reuelationum. It offers an indispensable guide to the source texts available to Peter and provides access to hundreds of often macabre but edifying tales that remain unedited. Its value as a finding tool is enhanced by three indices that enable the reader to search the Calendar by author, work, and name. In the course of illuminating the various contexts of Peter's writings, the authors control an impressive span of interdisciplinary scholarship, which ranges over Irish and English monastic records, biblical scholarship, social history, vision literature, and the Cistercian Order in England and on the Continent." -Christopher McDonough, University of Toronto