Jankyn's Book of Wikked Wyves. Vol.1 The Primary Texts. Walter Map's "Dissuasio," Theophrastus' "De Nuptiis," Jerome's Adversus Jovinainum

Author / Editor: Hanna, Ralph, III, and Traugott Lawler, eds., using materials collected by Karl Young and Robert A. Pratt.

Description: Critical edition of the three Latin antifeminist works that influenced Chaucer most significantly, especially his WBP, MerT, and FranT. Includes a complete version of Map's "Dissuasio Valerii ad Rufinum" and portions of Jerome's "Adversus Jovinianum" that Chaucer used, including Theophrastus's "Golden Book of Marriage," here attributed to Jerome. No extant manuscript reflects Chaucer's actual source, but the material edited here is central to the tradition from which he drew. In their introduction, the editors trace the development of this tradition and discuss the edited texts, medieval commentaries on these texts, and related materials; they discuss Chaucer's relations with this tradition. Collations of variants, textual notes, and explanatory notes accompany the texts. The volume includes a checklist of manuscripts known to contain portions of the edited texts, a subject index, and an index indicating where Chaucer used these texts. Volume 2 was published in 2014; search for Seven Commentaries on Walter Map's "Dissuasio Valerii" under Alternative Title.

Chaucer Subjects: Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations; Wife of Bath and Her Tale; Merchant and His Tale; Franklin and His Tale