This edition brings together for the first time key texts representing the writings of the medieval English mystics. The texts have been newly edited from early manuscripts, and are supplemented with textual and explanatory notes and a glossary. The book focuses on five major authors, Richard Rolle, Walter Hilton, the anonymous author of The Cloud of Unknowing, Dame Julian of Norwich, and Margery Kempe. Shorter works are presented whole, where possible, and accompanied by extracts from the mystics' longer works; extracts from contemporary translations into English are also included to illustrate the reception of European mystical texts in later medieval England. Overall, this volume makes accessible some of the finest writing by English contemplatives and visionaries of the Middle Ages.

"Barry Windeatt's fine anthology of late Middle English mystical writings exemplifies in an almost startling manner what might be designated the central dilemma of modern spiritual scholarship." Christianity and Literature

"The texts are newly edited from the manuscripts and are supplemented with texual and explanatory notes and a glossary, making available some of the best work of the English mystics." Manuscripta