The letter collections of Peter of Blois: studies in the manuscript tradition

Wahlgren-Smith, Lena (1993) The letter collections of Peter of Blois: studies in the manuscript tradition. University of Gothenburg, Doctoral Thesis, 212pp.

Abstract

Peter of Blois lived c. 1135-c.1212. During his career as secretary to the magnates of England and Normandy, Peter of Blois wrote a number of elegant, some of which he subsequently collected and published. The present thesis deals with the question of Peter's editorial work. It aims to show that Peter issued two editions of his letter collection. There is evidence of textual revision between the first and second edition, but not of any other textual revision by Peter himself. His second edition shows a marked change in attitude towards the secular career, and towards Henry II of England. This is clearly connected with the king's death and the failure of Peter's career. A number of letters which never formed part of the collection have crept into later manuscripts, which also show divergences as to letter order, and, in some cases, combine letters and texts from the two collections. The manuscript tradition is heavily contaminated. A future edition of the collection should be based on small groups of uncontaminated manuscripts.

The thesis also contains an attempt at classification of 64 manuscripts on the criteria of contents and letter order, and trial editions of five letters (epp. 1, 14, 26, 30 and 150).

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