Before the Wycliffite Bible in the 1380s, one of the only complete books of the Bible to be translated into Middle English was the Book of Revelation. ‘The English Apocalypse’, translated from the French in the early 14th century, must have been well known to the later translators, as it appears in 18 extant manuscripts, sometimes alongside Wycliffite material.
This edition reproduces, for the first time, a copy of the English Apocalypse, which actually replaced the Book of Revelation at the end of a Wycliffite New Testament.
Whether the manuscript compiler simply preferred this version or meant it to be a placeholder or translation guide, this unique text is immensely valuable to scholars of early English Bible translation, as well as to students of Middle English literature and medieval religious practice.