Learning and Literature in Anglo-Saxon England
Studies Presented to Peter Clemoes on the Occasion of his Sixty-Fifth Birthday

An collection of essays by specialists in the field examining Anglo-Saxon learning and text interpretation and transmission.

Michael Lapidge (Edited by), Helmut Gneuss (Edited by)

9780521128711, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 4 February 2010

492 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.8 cm, 0.72 kg

Originally published in 1985, fourteen leading specialists in the field of Anglo-Saxon studies contributed to this substantial collection of essays in honour of Peter Clemoes, founder of Anglo-Saxon England, who had recently retired as Elrington and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon in the University of Cambridge. The book is divided into two complementary parts. The first looks at the background to Anglo-Saxon learning, in particular at the composition of monastic and private libraries and the nature of the individual works available in them. The second examines the contents and sources of individual texts and reviews the problems of interpretation and transmission these pose for scholars. Many of these essays deal with complex and difficult materials like manuscripts and liturgical sources that are fundamental to the interpretation of Old English literature and to Anglo-Saxon culture in general.

The writings of Peter Clemoes
Part I. The Background: Books, Libraries and Learning in Anglo-Saxon England: 1. Whitby as a centre of learning in the seventh century Peter Hunter Blair
2. Surviving booklists from Anglo-Saxon England Michael Lapidge
3. Liturgical books in Anglo-Saxon England and their Old English terminology Helmut Gneuss
4. King Athelstan's books Simon Keynes
Part II. The Texts: Texts, Sources and Interpretations: 5. Thoughts on Ephrem the Syrian in Anglo-Saxon England Patrick Sims-Williams
6. On the library of the Old English Martyrologist J. E. Cross
7. The orientation system in the Old English Orosius: shifted or not? Michael Korhammer
8. Anglo-Saxons on the mind M. R. Gooden
9. The homilies of the Blickling manuscript D. G. Scragg
10. The liturgical background of the Old English Advent lyrics: a reappraisal Susan Rankin
11. The Office in late Anglo-Saxon monasticism M. McC. Gatch
12. The Judgement of the Damned (from Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 201 and other manuscripts), and the definition of Old English verse E. G. Stanley
13. Beowulf and the judgement of the righteous Stanley B. Greenfield
14. Linguistic evidence as a guide to the authorship of Old English verse: a reappraisal, with special reference to Beowulf Janet Bately
Indexes.

Subject Areas: Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500 [HBLC], British & Irish history [HBJD1]