Columba is one of the
best-known saints of the early Celtic church; through his foundation
of the abbey of Iona he had a far-reaching influence on medieval
Christianity. In about 700, a century after his death, the Life of Columba was written by Adomnán, ninth abbot of Iona. It has long
been valued as the major primary source on the subject, for the
light it throws on early medieval Scotland and Ireland, and as an
important work of literature.
The 1961 edition of the Life, by Alan and Marjorie Anderson, has
long been unavailable. Marjorie Anderson has now revised both the
Latin text and the English translation, provided new historical
notes, and rewritten the Introduction to take account of recent work
in the area. This new edition of a source indispensable for the
study of the early medieval church meets a major scholarly need.
344 pages
Readership: Scholars and students of medieval British
history; especially historians of the Celtic church; specialists in
early medieval literature.
The
Historia Ierosolimitana, attributed to Albert of Aachen, is the most
complete, the most detailed and the most colourful of the
contemporary narratives of the First Crusade and the careers of the
first generation of Latin settlers in Outremer from 1095-1119. It
comprises twelve books, the first six telling the story of the First
Crusade through to the capture of Jerusalem in 1099 and its
aftermath, and the final six describing the internal and external
politics of the crusader states during the first two decades of
settlement. Largely neglected by crusades scholarship, this modern
edition and translation allows it to be studied alongside better
known accounts.
This volume has been prepared from a critical study of all the
extant manuscripts, and features the definitive Latin account, with
English translation. Edgington supports the translation and text
with an authoritative introduction, extensive historical notes and
critical study of the work. This volume will alter the focus of
crusades studies, generating interest in previously disregarded
aspects of crusade and settlement in the first decades of the
twelfth century. 1016 pages
Readership: Scholars and students of medieval history;
crusades scholars.
Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People was
completed in 731 and still ranks among the most popular of history
books. By the end of the eighth century, copies of it were to be
found in many parts of England and on the Continent, some of which
are still extant. If it were not for Bede's History we should know
little about the Anglo-Saxon invasion and the beginnings of
Christianity in England, and such familiar names as Edwin and
Oswald, Cuthbert and Chad, Hilda and Caedmon would be almost
forgotten.
First published in 1969, Colgrave and Mynors's edition made use
for the first time of the mid-eighth-century manuscript now in
Leningrad, provided a survey of the extant manuscripts, and a new
translation; it also brought up to date Plummer's invaluable
edition. This revised edition takes into account J.M. Wallace-Hadrill's
Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People: A Historical
Commentary (Oxford Medieval Texts, 1988), enabling the reader to
use the two in conjunction. 696 pages
Readership: Scholars and students of medieval British
history; especially historians of Anglo-Saxon England; religious
and ecclesiastical historians.
Byrhtferth of Ramsey was one of the
most learned scholars of late Anglo-Saxon England, and his two
saints' Lives-of Oswald, a powerful bishop of Worcester and York
in the tenth century (d. 992), and Ecgwine, the seventh-century
founder of Evesham-are among the most important historical sources
for our understanding of late Anglo-Saxon England.
The Life of St Oswald is the longest surviving work of
Anglo-Saxon hagiography, and it is the principal source for much
of our knowledge of tenth-century England, especially the monastic
reform movement, the role of King Edgar, the murder of Edward king
and Martyr, and the so-called 'anti-monastic reaction' (of which
he is the unique witness). Much less is known about St Ecgwine,
both by us and by Byrhtferth, but Byrhtferth's writing has
exceptional value once again for the light it throws on
tenth-century monasticism and the role of King Edgar in this
process.
Both Lives have been printed only once before, in the nineteenth
century, in editions which are riddled with errors and which have
misled scholarship for over a century. Neither work has ever been
translated into English. The present edition includes facing-page
translations, which will make these works accessible to a
scholarly audience for the first time. Byrhtferth's Latin is
unusually idiosyncratic and difficult, and was frequently
misunderstood by the scribe who copied the unique manuscript in
which the Lives are preserved. The texts are also accompanied by
extensive notes, which explain the historical implications and the
often impenetrable Latin. One of the principal features of the new
edition is that corruption in the transmitted text has been
emended where necessary, based on knowledge of Byrhtferth's Latin
style (analysed, for example, in the EETS edition of Byrhtferth's
Enchiridion, ed. Lapidge and Baker in 1994).
A new edition of Byrhtferth's two saints' Lives has been long
awaited, and will be indispensable to the study of Anglo-Saxon
history and literature; the texts also throw considerable new
light on the archaeology of Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastical sites such
as York, Worcester, Ramsey and Evesham.
472 pages
Readership: Students and scholars of Anglo-Saxon history
and literature.
This
is the first complete edition of the Chronicon Anonymi
Cantuariensis, a contemporary narrative that provides valuable
insights into medieval war and diplomacy, written at Canterbury
shortly after the mid-fourteenth century. The previous edition,
published in 1914, was based on a manuscript from which the text
for the years 1357 to 1364 was missing. Presented here in full
with a modern English translation, the chronicle provides a key
narrative of military and political events covering the years from
1346 to 1365.
Concentrating principally on the campaigns of the Hundred Years
War and their impact upon the inhabitants of south-east England,
the author took advantage of his position on the main news route
between London and Paris to provide a detailed account of a
crucial phase in British and European history.
232 pages
Readership: Researchers and students of medieval history;
those interested in military history
