A Recent Discovery Concerning the Sources of Chaucer's 'Second Nun's Tale'

Author / Editor
Reames, Sherry L.

Title
A Recent Discovery Concerning the Sources of Chaucer's 'Second Nun's Tale'

Published
Modern Philology 87 (1990): 337-61.

Description
A "Franciscan abridgment" of the Saint Cecilia legend, extant in two complete copies and numerous fragments, explains verbal details of SNT as well as omissions of episodes found in the "Legenda aurea" and Bosio's edition of "Passion S. Caeciliae."
All known manuscripts of the abridgment are described; the version closest to Chaucer's is appended. The abridgment should restore "Chaucer's due credit as a translator" and "help us reach a better understanding of his intentions."

Chaucer Subjects
Second Nun and Her Tale.
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations.