Enciclopedia Cattolica Vol. IX, 1952 Literature

The Ormulum

ORMULUM, THE

Italian original Cite

THE ORMULUM. - It is a long didactic poem in English, composed in the first half of the 13th century by the Augustinian monk Orm (hence the title).

About 20,000 verses of it survive. It consists of a series of meticulous paraphrases of the Gospels in the order in which they appear in the Roman Missal over the course of the liturgical year. The work, which is devoid of poetic qualities, was probably intended for recitation aloud, and the author therefore adopted a special orthography (with a distinction between short and long syllables, etc.) that makes it a valuable document for the linguist who wishes to reconstruct the English of the time, including its metrical and phonetic data.

Bibliography

BIBL.: see the edition in 2 vols. edited by R. Holt, Oxford 1878.

Augusto Guidi

About this entry

By Augusto Guidi

How we know signed in print

Translated from the Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. IX (1952), col. 361.

More by Augusto Guidi: Pater, Walter · The Pearl · Peter of Olaf (Petrus Olai) · Poe, Edgar Allan · Pre-Raphaelites and Pre-Raphaelism

Cite this article

Chicago

Guidi, Augusto. “Ormulum, the.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. IX, col. 361. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1952. https://azioneromana.com/article/ormulum-the.

MLA

Guidi, Augusto. “Ormulum, the.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. IX, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1952, col. 361. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/ormulum-the.

BibTeX

@incollection{ec9_ormulum_the,
  author    = {Guidi, Augusto},
  title     = {Ormulum, the},
  booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
  volume    = {IX},
  pages     = {361},
  note      = {Cited by column},
  publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
  address   = {Città del Vaticano},
  year      = {1952},
  url       = {https://azioneromana.com/article/ormulum-the}
}

One of some 20,000 entries brought back from the twelve printed volumes (1948–54). Spotted something? Help us improve it.