The subject of this monograph is a uniquely interesting mid fifteenth-century anthology known as the Amherst manuscript (British Library, London, ms Additional 37790), which contains texts on contemplation by writers in the vanguard of late medieval mysticism, including Richard Rolle, Julian of Norwich, Marguerite Porete, Jan van Ruusbroec, Henry Suso and St Bridget of Sweden. The emphasis of the manuscript's compiler on authorial mystical texts is significant in itself, but because the bulk of these works were translations into the vernacular, the manuscript provides especially rich evidence of reception, which is the main focus of Cré's important study. Although the texts range from the didactic to the monitory, from the visionary to the apophatic, the materials are unified thematically by a concern for the nature of the contemplative life and mystical union with God. These devotional subjects are fully in keeping with the literary tastes of the English Carthusians, among whom the volume was first produced, probably at Beauvale charterhouse. Cré argues that the monastic compiler deliberately ordered the texts so that they move towards ever greater complexity and sophistication and steadily increase their spiritually ambitious demands on readers. This sequence mirrors the broader structure of contemplation itself, which is usually described as a dynamic process of upward movement and ascent.

One of the strengths of Cré's book is its contribution to our understanding of Carthusian textual communities, as she unravels the complex routes of manuscript transmission and translation that shape these texts, which all have strong Carthusian affiliations. She evaluates each of the longer translations in light of questions of authorship and attribution, contacts between charterhouses (within England and on the continent) and with other orders, the significance of additions and omissions, and the treatment of mystical terminology, in order to show how these texts were actively appropriated and sometimes made anew. Her analysis of the nature of the translations is sensitive and sensible; they seem to betray, she suggests, how potentially dangerous rigorous contemplative texts were deemed. Her complex approach to reception is augmented by a great deal of technical information about the manuscript, including detailed paleographical analyses, critical editions of some of the shorter texts, and ‘reader profiles’ of the eight annotators she has identified. Evidence of contemporary reading practice is the kind of information most salutary yet painstaking to obtain; she has done a great service in providing such a detailed picture not only of the role of anthologist, but also of the translators, annotators and other readers of the manuscript. Cré's book, based on thorough knowledge of scholarship in the field and complete with useful appendices, will serve as an important touchstone for all those interested in late medieval religious culture, devotional manuscripts, mystical writings and the transmission of spiritual writings by the Carthusian order.