Excerpt from The Ancren Riwle: A Treatise on the Rules and Duties of Monastic Life

The Ancren Riwle has long been known and appreciated by many of those who have made the literary antiquities of England, and the history of its language, the subject of their study and research, a class more numerous now, perhaps, than at any former time. It has often been thought desirable that it should be printed, in order that the interesting information to be derived from it with regard to the state of society, the learning and manners, the moral and religious teaching, and the language of the period in which it was written, might become more generally accessible than it could be when contained only in a few copies in Ms. deposited in two of our public libraries. Influenced by such motives, and desirous of thereby forwarding the objects of the Camden Society, of which he has the honour of being a member, the Editor has endeavoured, in the intervals of professional labours and duties, and with such limited abilities and means of illustration as he possesses, to prepare it for the press, to which he now commits it, not without fear that he may sometimes have failed to elucidate the obscurities of its language, but in the hope that the result of his labour will be favourably received and candidly judged.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.