Edited by Valerie Edden (1990). Edition from Bodl. MS Rawlinson A 389
Richard Maidstone (d. 1396) was a Carmelite friar, whose skill as a poet has only recently been acknowledged. The popularity of his Penitential Psalms is attested by their survival in twenty manuscripts and the inclusion of extracts from them into anthologies. They use the psalm texts as a basis for penitential meditation, private devotion, and preparation for the sacrament of penance. They are also of interest for what they reveal about lay spirituality and the devotional tastes of the English aristocracy. There have been three previous editions of the Psalms, but these have been based on either a very small number of manuscripts or on particularly unreliable ones (as in the most recent edition, in EETS 155 (1921)). This new edition uses Rawlinson A 389 as base text and contains a full critical apparatus and in the Introduction a discussion of the complex relationships between the manuscripts. The edition includes full textual and explanatory notes, and a glossary.
This volume is out of print.