Ancrene Wisse: The English Text of the Ancrene Riwle. Edited From Ms. Corpus Christi College Cambridge 402.

TOLKIEN, J.R.R.

Item Number: 132049

London: Oxford University Press, 1962.

First edition of the early English Text Society’s printing of the text of the 13th century monastic guide and sermon on “holy maidenhood” for anchoresses; signed by J.R.R. Tolkien who contributed the Prefatory Note. Octavo, original cloth, double-sided frontispiece of the original manuscript in facsimile. Signed by J.R.R. Tolkien on the front free endpaper. Introduction by N.R. Ker. In near fine condition. From the library of the Convent of Notre Dame in Oxford (located only a few streets away from Tolkien’s Northmoor Road address) with the convent’s bookplate to the pastedown.

In 1929, Tolkien penned "Ancrene Wisse and Hali Meiðhad", an essay on on the thirteenth century Middle English treatise Ancrene Wisse ("The Anchoresses' Rule") and on the tract on virginity Hali Meiðhad ("Holy Maidenhood"). The essay has been called "the most perfect of Tolkien's academic pieces" and in 1962, he was asked by the Early English Text Society to contribute a prefatory note to their unaltered printing of the text of the Ancrene Wisse.