The Franciscan John of Rupescissa, the most productive and efficacious prophetic author in the late Middle Ages, is famous for his immense prison-bound prophetic productivity in papal Avignon. His most popular prophetic work was the 1356 eschatological handbook Vade mecum in tribulatione, a unique work in the history of medieval literature. It has now been critically edited, and twice within a year. In October 2015 Tealdi's edition was released by Vita e Pensiero, with historical introductions by Robert Lerner and Gian Luca Potestà. In December 2016 Kaup's edition, submitted in August 2015 to Ashgate, was published by Routledge, whose parent company, Taylor and Francis, had meanwhile acquired Ashgate. As the European eschatological bestseller of the late Middle Ages, the Vade mecum is so significant that both editions will be discussed here:

Outlining the transmission history Elena Tealdi details the material aspects and transmission context of all the manuscripts (pp. 93–134), while Kaup concentrates on the transmission context of those with plenary versions of the Vade mecum and with its most important compendious version, the Veni mecum in tribulatione (pp. 83–103, 113–14). Both editors examine the relationships between the manuscripts: Tealdi appears to consult the whole stock of variants (pp. 135–209), while Kaup draws on exemplary paragraphs of the Vade mecum (pp. 103–111). What exactly Tealdi includes from the collation in the variant apparatus does not clearly follow from her editorial principles (p. 211). Kaup defines his more thoroughly (pp. 118–123), omitting only the orthographica, with the exception of place and proper names in selected paragraphs. Thus, Kaup's variant apparatus is much more extensive, unlike that of Tealdi, making it possible for readers to reconstruct all four reworked plenary versions from the variants. Tealdi works basically with the modern edition principle of the reference manuscript (p. 139), while Kaup uses the classical stemmatic method (p. 111), although aware of its problems (p. 104).

Both authors offer an overview of the Vade mecum's content. Tealdi concentrates on the prefatory letter and the twenty chapters, the intentiones, ignoring the epilogue as a separate structural element (Tealdi at pp. 66–70; Kaup at pp. 4–11; incipit and explicit/colophon only in Kaup's edition). Lerner provides the latest biographical knowledge on Rupescissa (Tealdi at pp. 27–34). Potestà and Tealdi present, independently, Rupescissa's eschatological staff (pp. 41–60, 71–5), and Tealdi also introduces the driving principles of salvation history in Rupescissa (pp. 76–80). In contrast, Kaup offers something of that sort only in his commentary on the Vade mecum (pp. 131–277), which can be examined through his general index (pp. 333–47). Tealdi supplies a useful overview of Rupescissa's sources (pp. 81–91), but with Kaup readers can orient themselves only by using his substantial indices and his commentary on the Vade mecum (Kaup at pp. 131–277, 325–47). Whereas the last three points constitute particular strengths of Tealdi's edition, direct text work is greatly advanced by Kaup's detailed, multi-perspective commentary, while Tealdi's factual apparatus mainly offers only brief references to sources. In addition to Rupescissa's version (Tealdi: Vade mecum – versione integrale; Kaup: Vade mecum – Versio plena), both authors edit further reworkings of the Vade mecum. In this Tealdi presents many more texts than Kaup.

Both editions largely agree in the basic evaluation of text families (Tealdi) or versions (Kaup). However, they differ fundamentally regarding which text version of the Vade mecum should be considered: Tealdi opts for her family α (p. 136) which Kaup classifies as the Versio plena expolita, one of four early plenary versions, reworked from Rupescissa's Versio plena by unknown hands. Via a detailed text analysis, Kaup convincingly demonstrates that they are not authentic (pp. 19–48).

Tealdi, on the other hand, does not make a compelling argument for the version that she has chosen as Rupescissa's authentic Versione integrale. She tries to present five passages as without doubt authentic variants of the family α which the other families corrupt (pp. 136–9). None of these passages convinces a close reader.

For example Tealdi's second reference variant – only found in the Reginensis – says that at the millennium the earth (most of the manuscripts have ‘church’, few an omission) will be filled with inexpressible holiness (pp. 138ff.). Thus, for Tealdi, the Reginensis shows a deeper textual understanding of the Vade mecum, which is not only talking of the Roman Church, but of the all-fulfilling holiness of the millennium. However, concerning the millenium Rupescissa has already, in his 1349 Liber secretorum rventuum (§§ 125–6), focussed upon the overwhelming holiness of the Church. Generally, the future renewal of the Roman Church is a constant for Rupescissa, who does not care for the Reginensis's diffuse sanctification of terra.

Nor can Tealdi's other reference variants be referred to as ‘surely’ authentic, most not even plausibly. Kaup's approach is far more convincing, seeing them as the result of an early revision (his Versio plena expolita). Hence, Tealdi's Versione integrale is not Rupescissa's authentic version, but an early reworking by another hand. Furthermore, at a good thirty points Tealdi trades a reading of all six manuscripts of α without a legitimate motivation for the dominant reading of the rest of the transmission. This means that she corrects her authentic version in the sense of Kaup's authentic one, for example she supplements against α the term Nero as a name for the western AntiChrist (p. 246), as used in the 1356 Liber Ostensor. But since α is meaningful without that, there is no legitimate reason to change the text.

Tealdi has therefore produced a hybrid edition: offering the Versio plena expolita, shot through with many elements of the Versio plena (to use Kaup's terminology), her Versione integrale cannot even serve as an early reception testimony to the Vade mecum. For textual work, one has to use Kaup's edition.

However, given the significant merits to Tealdi's edition, one has to emphasise that those interested in medieval apocalypticism and the history of religion and ideas will profit immensely from both editions of Rupescissa's Vade mecum in tribulatione.