Seven Psalms

This is the first edition of a translation into English of an Old French Commentary on the Penitential Psalms, made in the fifteenth century by Dame Eleanor Hull, wife of Sir John Hull, a retainer of John of Gaunt. Eleanor Hull was a devout laywoman, lady-in-waiting to the second wife of Henry IV, who spent some of her life in Sopwell Priory, a house of Benedictine nuns attached to St Albans Abbey. She is the first woman to have made translations into English whose name is known, and about whom there is any information. In addition to the commentary on the penitential psalms, she also translated a collection of prayers and meditations that is as yet unpublished. She is a significant figure in English literary history, who has remained virtually unknown until now.