Bibliographic Information

Aldhelm, the prose works

translated by Michael Lapidge and Michael Herren

D. S. Brewer , Rowman & Littlefield, 1979

Available at  / 8 libraries

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Note

"Aldhelm bibliography": p. 22-27

Includes index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Aldhelm, born c.640 in Wessex, and becoming abbot of Malmesbury and later bishop of Sherborne, was the first English man of letters; up to 1100, his prose writings were the most widely read of any Latin literature produced in Anglo-Saxon England. His surviving prose works include a long treatise De virginitate, and a number of letters; these in particular are an important source of knowledge concerning Anglo-Saxon England. The treatise, a lengthy exhortation on virtue addressed to nuns at Barking Abbey, is a fascinating series of exempla drawn from the prodigious range of Aldhelm's knowledge of patristic literature, and tailored to the expectations of a seventh-century Anglo-Saxon female audience. Because of the extreme difficulty of his Latin, however, Aldhelm's prose works have rarely been read, and have never been adequately appreciated - which this translation seeks to remedy. It is accompanied with an introduction outlining Aldhelm's central importance to Anglo-Saxon literary culture; a critical biography which throws new light on what has previously been assumed about him; and an essay establishing an accurate canon and chronology of his writings.

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Details

  • NCID
    BA1033129X
  • ISBN
    • 0859910415
  • LCCN
    79311356
  • Country Code
    uk
  • Title Language Code
    eng
  • Text Language Code
    eng
  • Original Language Code
    lat
  • Place of Publication
    Cambridge [Eng.],Totowa, N.J.
  • Pages/Volumes
    vi, 210 p.
  • Size
    23 cm
  • Classification
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