A Little Treatise Against Fleshly Affections: Edited from London, British Library, MS Royal 17 C XVIII

Abstract

The aim of this article is to introduce an anonymous late fifteenth-century treatise of religious guidance, A Little Treatise Against Fleshly Affections. Presently edited for the first time from London, British Library, MS Royal 17 C xviii, this short Middle English treatise was devised as a tool of diagnosis, prevention, and cure for individuals troubled by feelings of inordinate carnal love. Alongside the text itself and formal editorial considerations, the present edition offers a discussion of the treatise’s textual relationship with David of Augsburg’s De exterioris et interioris hominis compositione and its potential origin and relation to Syon Abbey, as well as its intended audiences.