Anonymous, Cursor Mundi

Hugh Magennis (Queen's University Belfast)

Ed. by Hugh Magennis, Queen's University Belfast
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.02: English Writing and Culture: High and Late Medieval, 1066-1485.
Vol. editors: Kate Ash-Irisarri (University of Edinburgh), Rory Critten (Université de Lausanne), David Fuller (University of Durham), Natalie Hanna (University of Liverpool), Hugh Magennis (Queen's University Belfast), Jamie McKinstry (University of Durham), Sarah Peverley (University of Liverpool), Sebastian Sobecki (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen)

Dates

First circulation or publication c. 1300 - c. 1400

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Poetry (any)

Resources

Cursor Mundi is a compendious Middle English verse work of biblical and other religious teaching running to almost 30,000 lines in the seven-volume nineteenth-century Early English Text Society edition by Richard Morris (still the standard). It survives in nine manuscripts, among which three versions of the poem are distinguishable, as reflected in the multi-text layout of Morris’s edition. Written by an anonymous poet in a popular romance-like style, mostly in octosyllabic couplets, Cursor Mundi sets out to provide edifying but also entertaining Christian knowledge to an audience of ordinary laypeople. It begins with a prologue in which the poet refers to the matter of popular romance, listing the names and deeds o…

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1003 words

Citation: Magennis, Hugh. "Cursor Mundi". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 14 April 2005 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=16739, accessed 23 November 2024.]

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