Aldhelm: The Prose Works

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.

Author: Michael Lapidge
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Published: 09/17/2009
Pages: 224
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.64lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.51d
ISBN13: 9781843841999
ISBN10: 1843841991
BISAC Categories:
- Literary Criticism | Medieval
- Literary Criticism | Poetry
- Literary Collections | Medieval