To Instruct and to Entertain - Medieval Didactic dialogues. The Old English Solomon and Saturn, the Middle English Master of Oxford's Catechism and their reconstructed Latin source; the Old English Adrian and Ritheus and the Old Icelandic.

This volume focuses on five medieval vernacular didactic dialogues, including the Old English Solomon and Saturn and Adrian and Ritheus, the Middle English Master of Oxford's Catechism, and the Old Icelandic Dialogue between a Pupil and his Master, alongside a reconstructed Latin source that may have inspired these texts. The edition presents these texts in parallel columns with critical apparatus, glossaries, and indexes, highlighting their close interrelationship and shared question-and-answer format rooted in biblical and apocryphal knowledge. The work offers valuable insights into medieval educational and literary culture, illustrating how these dialogues served both instructive and entertaining purposes for monks, clerics, and students across medieval Europe. The inclusion of manuscript illustrations and detailed commentary supports scholarly research into the transmission and adaptation of medieval didactic literature.