Trinity Apocalypse ed. by Ian Short (review)

The present edition of the text of the prose Apocalypse, extant in only Cambridge, Trinity College, MS R.16.12, serves as a complement to the recent work by David McKitterick and others on the manuscript (The Trinity Apocalypse (Trinity College Cambridge, MS R.16.2) (London: British Library, 2005)). The new insights provided by this volume justify a new edition of this unique text, superseding earlier ones by Montague Rhodes James (The Trinity College Apocalypse (London: Roxburghe Club, 1909)), Peter H. Brieger (The Trinity College Apocalypse (London: Eugrammia Press, 1967)), and Yorio Otaka and Hideka Fukui (Apocalypse anglo-normande (Cambridge Trinity College MS R.16.12) (Osaka: Centre de recherches anglo-normandes, 1977)). The text preserves an independent translation of the Book of Revelations, unrelated to the more common prose version known in the 1901 edition by Léopold Delisle and Paul Meyer (L’Apocalypse en français au xiii^e siècle (Bibl. nat. fr. 403) (Paris: Firmin-Didot et cie, 1901)) or to the verse Apocalypse edited by Brent A. Pitts (Revelacion (Oxford: Anglo-Norman Text Society, 2010)) or by Olwyn Rhys (An Anglo-Norman Rhymed Apocalypse with Commentary (Oxford: Anglo-Norman Text Society, 1946)). The translation is accompanied by an Anglo-Norman exegesis as well as seventy illustrations, including scenes from the Life of St John that precede and follow the text in the manuscript. Analysis of the text, images, and manuscript has led scholars to date it between 1255 and 1260. It is likely to have been produced in southern England, perhaps under the patronage of Eleanor of Provence. Ian Short believes the work was designed for a ‘secular, aristocratic audience’ (p. xiv) and further notes that the commentary was designed to ‘encourage an allegorical reading of the images and of the Vulgate text’ (p. xxvi). The edition presents the text of the Vulgate and the commentary on facing pages, which mimics the left–right division of text found in the initial folios of the manuscript. The text is presented without the accompanying illustrations, a process that Short admits may ‘destroy the complex visual experience’ (p. xxxii) found in the manuscript, which can be viewed online; however, this process does allow him to focus on the text and its idiosyncrasies. In particular, Short notes some of the unusual orthography found in the text, suggesting that this may be the result of a scribe who normally writes in Latin. This is further supported by the use of a number of words calqued on Latin as well as some Latinate syntax. The translation appears to be based on a Vulgate variant, while the commentary is derived from Berengaudus (‘Expositio super septem visiones libri Apocalypsis’, in Patrologiae cursus completus, ed. by Jacques-Paul Migne, Patrologiae Latinae, vol. xviii, col. 843 (Paris: Garnier Frères, 1879)), considerably truncated. In addition, the Introduction provides a short comparison between the two texts, to highlight the translation process, as well as further discussion on the mise en page; textual notes often provide further details on the relationship between the Anglo-Norman text and its sources.