The Revelation of the Monk of Eynsham is a late fifteenth-century translation of the late twelfth-century Visio monachi de Eynsham by Adam of Eynsham [later author of the Magna vita sancti Hugonis]. The Revelation recounts a vision of Purgatory and Paradise experienced by Adam's brother, Edmund, at the monastery of Eynsham, while unconscious for two days at Easter 1196. Edmund interviewed a varied range of contemporary figures in theother world, from the soul of a local alcoholic goldsmith to that of Henry II. His account gives a vivid picture of lay and clerical attitudes to sin, penance, death and the afterlife at the end of the twelfth century. The English translation survives in two copies printed in London ca. 1483 by William de Machlinia.

This is the first modern edition of the Revelation since Edward Arber's reprint in 1869. The Middle English text isprinted in parallel with an edited text of the version of the Latin source closest to that used by the translator, based on Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Selden Supra 66.

Robert Easting is Associate Professor and Reader inEnglish Language and Literature at the Victoria University of Wellington.