Bede

The past two decades have seen something of a revolution in the study of the works of Bede. The eighth-century Anglo-Saxon monk, once seen as a man of one book, has been increasingly studied in the totality of his rich and varied output. An important element in this reappraisal has been the increasing availability of writings other than his Ecclesiastical History of the English People in translation. Liverpool University Press has been at the forefront in producing these translations through their excellent series, ‘Translated Texts for Historians’. Both the authors of the present volume have previously translated Bede for the series, and Faith Wallis’s magisterial volume on De Temporum Ratione/On the Reckoning of Time has been a particular high-water mark in recent work on Bede’s scientific writings. The current volume seems to be a spiritual successor to that work. The two brief treatises translated here were forerunners to De Temporum Ratione, in which Bede was substantially to rework them. De Natura Rerum/On the Nature of Things is a cosmographical treatise in which the author works his way down from the highest heavens to earth, discussing the celestial bodies and meteorological phenomena along the way. De Temporibus/On Times serves as a brief introduction to computus, the science of calculating time and especially the date of Easter. It also includes a brief world chronicle, divided according to the six ages of the world which, although first popularised by Augustine, Bede was to champion passionately. Both works are very compressed and their laconic style frequently hinders rather than helps understanding when the discussion becomes technical. It was partly to deal with such difficulties for his own pupils that Bede seems to have set about expanding on both works in De Temporum Ratione. Calvin Kendall and Faith Wallis, however, supply the brief texts with ample notes, a detailed introduction and commentary, and no less than four appendices, one of which provides the translation of a hymn of Bede’s composition on the relationship between the six world ages and the six days of creation

Alchemy · Archaeology · Art · Art history · Champion · Faith · Literature · Successor cardinal · The Renaissance · Theology · Classics · Historical and Archaeological Studies · Historical, Literary, and Cultural Studies · History · Medieval Literature and History · Philosophy