Placeholder text

Go to cart

The Old English Version of Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica

By Rowley, Sharon M.

The Old English Version of Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica

By Rowley, Sharon M.

0 - Default Title
Description
The Old English version of Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis anglorum is one of the earliest and most substantial surviving works of Old English prose. Translated anonymously around the end of the ninth or beginning of the tenth century, the text, which is substantially shorter than Bede's original, was well known and actively used in medieval England, and was highly influential. However, despite its importance, it has been little studied.
In this first book on the subject, the author places the work in its manuscript context, arguing that the text was an independent, ecclesiastical translation, thoughtfully revised for its new audience. Rather than looking back on the age of Bede from the perspective of a king centralizing power and building a community by recalling a glorious English past, the Old English version of Bede's Historia transforms its source to focus on local history, key Anglo-Saxon saints, and their miracles. The author argues that its reading reflects an ecclesiastical setting more than a political one, with uses more hagiographical than royal; and that rather than being used as a class-book or crib, it functioned as a resource for vernacular preaching, as a corpus of vernacular saints' lives, for oral performance, and episcopal authority.
Product details
Edition:
illustrated
Number of Pages:
272
Release Date:
2011-09-15
Publication Date:
2011-09-15
Publisher:
D.S.Brewer
Languages:
Original: English
ISBN10:
1843842734
ISBN13:
9781843842736
GPSR Manufacturer Reference:
[email protected]
Weight:
575 g
Height:
161 cm
Width:
240 cm
Thickness:
19 cm
Buy on Amazon
Currently sold out