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Teaching the Teachers

The Vercelli Book and the Mixed Life

Bibliographic Data

ID8861860
AuthorsFrancis Leneghan (0000-0002-3999-6533, corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume94
Issue6
Pages627-658
Publication date2013-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueEnglish Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0013-838X • E-ISSN: 1744-4217
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/0013838x.2013.814319
OpenAlexW2026495313
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited38

In this article I propose that the rationale of the compilation of the Vercelli Book is best appreciated if we group texts according to theme and content rather than form. The distinction between prose and verse appears to have been of little concern to the compiler, who combines homiletic texts with exemplary narratives concerning the education of teachers and, finally, a life of a hermit. This points to an interest in the tension between the pastoral duties of the preacher and the contemplative virtues of the ascetic life. Drawing on Gregory the Great's influential formulation of the “mixed life” of the ideal pastor in his “Cura Pastoralis”, I argue that the Vercelli Book invites the implied preacher-reader to balance the duty of preaching with the need for prayer, thereby harmonizing the active and contemplative lives

Aesthetics · Art · Asceticism · Contemplation · Duty · Epistemology · Ideal (ethics · Literature · Narrative · Prayer · Theme (computing · Theology · Byzantine Studies and History · Computer Science · Medieval Literature and History · Psychology · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity · Philosophy

  • Cynewulf’s Resonance within the Vercelli Book

    Jacob Wayne Runner•Nottingham Medieval Studies•2025

  • Memory, Sight and Love in Cynewulf’sElene

    Hannah Mckendrick Bailey•English Studies•2016

  • Le vieil-anglais

    Elise Louviot•Revue germanique internationale•2021

  • Revisiting OE holm-wudu in The Dream of the Rood

    Open Access•Y W Li•English Studies•2025

  • Male and Female Devotion in Three Texts of the Vercelli Book

    Rebecca Hardie•English Studies•2019

  • The Textual Criticism of The Dream of the Rood

    Leonard Neidorf, Na Xu•English Studies•2020

  • Archbishop Wulfstan's Ecclesiastical History of the English People

    Leonard Neidorf•English Studies•2016

  • Private Study and Opportune Words

    Open Access•Amy Faulkner•English Studies•2025

  • Hermits and Recluses in English Society, 950–1200

    Tom Licence•Hermits and recluses in English…•2011

  • The corpus of vernacular homilies and prose saints' lives before Ælfric

    Open Access•Donald Scragg, D G Scragg•Anglo-Saxon England•1979

  • The Old English Benedictine Rule

    Open Access•Rohini Jayatilaka•Anglo-Saxon England•2003

  • The compilation of the Vercelli Book

    Open Access•Donald Scragg, D G Scragg•Anglo-Saxon England•1973

  • Self-contained units in composite manuscripts of the Anglo-Saxon period

    Open Access•P R Robinson•Anglo-Saxon England•1978

  • The origin of the Exeter Book of Old English poetry

    Open Access•Richard Gameson•Anglo-Saxon England•1996

  • The lexical and syntactic variants shared by two of the later manuscripts of King Alfred's translation of Gregory's Cura Pastoralis

    Open Access•Dorothy Horgan, Dorothy M Horgan•Anglo-Saxon England•1980

  • The Bishop as Pastor and Solitary

    Open Access•SIMON COATES, Simon J Coates•The Journal of Ecclesiastical…•1996

  • Cynewulf's Runes in Juliana and Fates of the Apostles

    Ralph W V Elliott•English Studies•1953

  • Cynewulf's Runes in Christ II and Elene

    Ralph W V Elliott•English Studies•1953

Unique citing works8
Citations per year0,8
Citation span2016 - 2025 (10)
Citation velocityrecent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 8
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