Richard Rolle

Kevin Gustafson

Ed. by Natalie Hanna, University of Liverpool
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

Born c. 1300
Died 1349
Activity 1320-1349

Places

Born in England
Active in England

Activities

Primary

Mystic
Poet

Resources

Rolle's Works

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We know more about the hermit, contemplative, and spiritual adviser Richard Rolle (c. 1300-1349) than about most writers from later medieval England. Prolific in a variety of forms, and in Latin as well as English, he is now remembered chiefly for the treatise

Incendium amoris

[

Fire of Love

], the Latin epistle

Emendatio vitae

[

Mending of Life

], and a number of vernacular short poems and works of spiritual instruction.

A primary source about Rolle’s earlier and later life are the nine lessons of the Officium et miracula [Office and Miracles], a liturgical work composed in the early 1380s as part of the campaign for his canonization. The first three lessons include a few details about his early life: he was born in Thornton (likely Thornton-le-Dale, near Pickering, in the West Riding of

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Citation: Gustafson, Kevin. "Richard Rolle". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 05 November 2021 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3832, accessed 21 November 2024.]