Revelations of Divine Love, Translated from British Library Additional MS 37790

Book excerpt: The Revelations of Julian of Norwich (sixteen visions inspired by the crucified Christ which she received during a serious illness) are recorded in two versions: the short text, written near the time; and the better-known second version, completed some twenty years later. The short text has a personal quality which Julian chose, probably for reasons of modesty, to edit out in her later version, but it has a simplicity and natural grace which give a clear sense of Julian as a person, and has been chosen by Frances Beer as the basis of this translation. Also included is Julian's doctrine of the Motherhood of God, excerpted from the long text. The introduction covers Julian's life and places her in the larger context of the fourteenth-century English mystical tradition.