SOURCE: Kahrl, Stanley J. “The Medieval Origins of the Sixteenth-Century Jest-Books.” Studies in the Renaissance, 13 (1966): 166-83.

In the following essay, Kahrl links sixteenth-century jest-books to the Gesta Romanorum, comparing the tales and exempla appearing in those books with tales in the Gesta Romanorum and similar collections.

Saynt Bede tellis in ‘Gestis Anglorum’ how, when Englond was oute of þe belefe, þe pope sente in-to it to preche a bisshop þat was a passyng sutell clerk, and a well-letterd; and he vsid so mekull soteltie and strange saying in his sermons, þat his prechyng owder litle profettid or noght. And þan þer was sent a noder þat was les of connyng of literatur þan he was, and he vsid talis and gude exsample in his sermon; and he within a while conuertyd nere-hand all Englond.¹

While exempla may not, in reality, have converted ‘nere-hand all Englond’, there can be...