Booke of Pylgremage of the Sowle.

Cust, Katherine Isabella, ed. The Booke of the Pylgremage of the Sowle. Translated from the French of Guillaume de Guileville and printed by William Caxton AN. 1483 with illuminations taken from the ms. copy in the British Museum. London: Basil Montagu Pickering, 1859. Slim 4to.; color, and black and white illustrations; foxed; red cloth, stamped in gilt; edgeworn; lightly rubbed.

A facsmilie of the 1483 manuscript in the British Museum. Publisher's ad, one leaf, two pages, tipped-in at the front endpapers.

A gift from Katherine Isabella Cust, signed by Una, Hawthorne, on the front pastedown. (“Recd a note from Miss Cust, in reference to the 'Sowle's Pilgrimage,' which she presents to me." French and Italian Notebooks, Vol. XIV, p. 694, 895)

Guillaume de Guileville, who spent 39 years in a Cistercian abbey, wrote three major works in his lifetime: Pèlerinage de la Vie Humaine (The Pilgrimage of Man), Le Pèlerinage de l'Ame (The Pilgrimage of the Soul), and Le Pèlerinage de Jhesucrist (The Pilgrimage of Jesus Christ). Cust's edition of Pilgrimage of the Soul contains only portions of Caxton's full translation. In the story, a pilgrim falls asleep and dreams that he has died. In his dream, an angel takes him to heaven, where his soul is put on trial before Lady Justice, who sentences him to expiate his sins in purgatory. The angel also takes the pilgrim to see hell and in the end, explains the holy trinity to the pilgrim, right before he wakes up.

Item ID#: 10239

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