The Ormulum in the Seventeenth Century: The Manuscript and Its Early Readers

The most recent edition of the Ormulum by Robert Holt (The Ormulum, with the notes and glossary of Dr. R. M. White, OUP, Oxford, 1878) pays little or no attention to its seventeenth-century readers and owners: the philologists Jan van Vliet (1622–1666) and Francis Junius (1591–1677). This study aims to fill this lacuna in the reception history of the Ormulum by analysing the study of the Ormulum in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. The results show a vivid and imaginative approach to the Ormulum by its first active student, Jan van Vliet, who discovered its metrical qualities and studied its lexicon. Despite a declining interest in the Ormulum by later scholars, the activities and ideas of its early readers have been a lasting influence on the reception of this unique text.