Henry Knighton, a canon
of St Mary's Abbey, Leicester, wrote his Chronicle between 1378 and
1396. Leicester was a fief of the duchy of Lancaster, and the abbey
was closely in touch with the households of Henry of Grosmont and
John of Gaunt. The Chronicle contains exceptionally vivid accounts
of the campaigns in France, in which Duke Henry was one of Edward
III's leading generals, of the onset and effects of the Black Death,
and of the crises of Richard II's reign. Knighton, whose fellow
canon Philip Repingdon was a pupil and early disciple of John Wyclif,
was a horrified witness of the rise of Lollardy, his account of
which is unmatched.
The Chronicle was printed in 1652 in a competent text with a brief
Latin commentary, and less satisfactorily in the Rolls Series in
1889-95. This edition includes analysis of the text and its sources,
and the first translation of its distinguished and engaging
narrative. 680 pages
Readership: Scholars and students
of medieval British history; especially social, political, and
military historians of the fourteenth century.
The
Libellus de Diversis Ordinibus was written in the 1130s or 1140s,
probably in the diocese of Liège, a recognized centre of religious
and intellectual activity at the time. It is a description of the
similarities and differences among the various orders of monks,
canons, and hermits, and, though clearly a contribution to a
contemporary debate, is more analytical than polemical. Its unknown
author, 'R', perhaps a regularcanon,
builds his case by demonstrating how each order and profession
corresponds to a group mentioned in the Old Testament: thus
prefigured and performing their proper functions they all fill a
legitimate place within the unity of the Church. It is an invaluable
source for religious life in the twelfth century, offering detailed
insights into contemporary assumptions and practice. 140 pages
Readership: Scholars and students of medieval history and
religion; especially ecclesiastical historians.
The church of Durham, founded in 995, claimed in the Middle Ages
to be in origin the church of Lindisfarne or Holy Island, the
members of which had fled in the face of Viking raids and had
wandered for long across northern England, before re-establishing
their church at Chester-le-Street in Co. Durham and then at Durham
itself. The text edited and translated here for the first time for
over a century is the most complete and detailed account of the
history of that church. Important as a piece of early
post-Conquest historiography by an author about whom much is now
known, the text is fascinating for the details it gives about the
ecclesiastical community of Durham, the miracles which its members
believed had occurred, and the place of the church of Durham in
relation to the lands and secular inhabitants of northern England.
452 pages
Readership: Scholars and students of medieval history and
religion.
The Life of St AEthelwold is one of the most important and interesting sources
for the history of Anglo-Saxon England and for the religious
movements of western Europe in the tenth century. It was written
around the year 1000 by Wulfstan of Winchester, who had been a
student of AEthelwold; the Life, therefore, provides a firsthand
account of the activities of the man who was the central force in
the Benedictine reform movement of the later tenth century. It
also reveals the nature of AEthelwold's education and contacts
with continental monasticism, and shows why Winchester became a
focal point of late Anglo-Saxon culture.
The present book, by two well-known authorities in the field of
Anglo-Latin literature, provides the first critical edition of
Wulfstan's Life. It is accompanied by a translation, extensive
historical notes, and a substantial introduction which treats both
Wulfstan and Aethelwold in the light of recent scholarly research.
Appendices provide editions of other texts relevant to the study
of AEthelwold, including a Latin Life by his pupil AElfric, some
verses by a twelfth-century Ely poet, and a previously unprinted
Middle English poem on the saint. This is a valuable edition of a
major source, which will be welcomed by all students of
Anglo-Saxon England. 294 pages
Readership : Scholars and students of medieval British
history; especially historians of Anglo-Saxon religion and
literature.
Peter Abelard
(1079-1142) is widely recognized as one of the most important
writers of the twelfth century, famed for his skill in logic as
well as his romance with Heloise. Even among Abelard's writings,
the Collationes - or Dialogue between a Christian, a
Philosopher, and a Jew - are remarkable for their daring and
intellectual imaginativeness. Written probably c.1130, the work
contains the fullest exposition of many aspects of abelard's
ethics, the only statement of his unusual eschatological theory,
and some of his most interesting ideas about faith and the
relationship between theism and revealed religion
This is the first full critical edition of the Collationes.
Based on an entirely new collation of the manuscripts, it provides
a facing-page English translation, detailed notes, and an
extensive historical and philosophical introduction. 368 pages
Readership: Scholars and students of medieval history,
literature, philosophy, and religion.
