The Sermons of Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln (1235-1253)

FAIN: FA-55249-10

Frank Anthony Carl Mantello
Catholic University of America (Washington, DC 20064-0001)

Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln (1235-53), was the outstanding intellect of medieval England, the leading personality in the 13th-century English episcopate, an aggressive reformer of ecclesiastical abuses, and a preacher of great renown. His writings, in several literary genres, have come down to us in hundreds of manuscript copies. One category of these writings--a large, rich, and complex collection of sermons, all in Latin--has been largely ignored by medievalists and remains what has been called a terra incognita. This project will explore Grosseteste's work as a homilist by providing (1) a fresh assessment of the extant manuscripts of his sermons; (2) a holistic study that will describe their significance among the bishop's theological and pastoral writings and place them securely in their historical setting as examples of the major literary genre of medieval religious life; (3) guidelines for future editors; and (4) fully critical editions of four sample sermons.

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