Dite de hosebondrie

Book excerpt: "The four treatises which are brought together in this volume are of interest from many points of view. A work attributed to Robert Grosseteste deserves to be rescued from oblivion and the pecularities of the dialect in which these writings were composed may attract the attention of students of early French. Others may, however, be led to examine them from an interest in the subject-matter of which they treat and this has been a primary consideration in planning the present edition. The work of an author who is only known through this book and two anonymous treatises have been placed alongside the maxims which were laid down by the great Bishop of Lincoln [Robert Grosseteste], for they deal, and deal at greater length with the management of estates ... The treatises are distinctly practical and were intended to assist men in the ordinary business of life; they assumed on the part of the readers a familiar knowledge of institutions and practices that have long since passed away. Though they so far supplement one another as to give a fairly complete picture of the life in a thirteenth century manor" - introduction.