Richard Rolle of Hampole

Richard Rolle (c. 1300 – 30 September 1349) was an English hermit, mystic, and religious writer. He is also known as Richard Rolle of Hampole or de Hampole, since at the end of his life he lived near a Cistercian nunnery in Hampole, now in South Yorkshire. In many ways, he can be considered the first English author due to the reported influence (both locally and internationally) of his vernacular works starting soon after his death and continuing for centuries. Indeed, until the nineteenth centu…