" ... second volume ... contains an introduction and detailed commentary to accompany the Latin text and translation of the work appearing in Volume I. The introduction presents and analyses the reasons behind the work ... The commentary, linked to the Latin text, discusses problems and questions thrown up by the work, and illustrations appear throughout."--Jacket.
" ... second volume ... contains an introduction and detailed commentary to accompany the Latin text and translation of the work appearing in Volume I. The introduction presents and analyses the reasons behind the work ... The commentary, linked to the Latin text, discusses problems and questions thrown up by the work, and illustrations appear throughout."--Jacket.
The Historia Novella is a key source for the succession dispute between King Stephen and the Empress Matilda which brought England to civil war in the twelfth century. William of Malmesbury was the doyen of the historians of his day. His account of the main events of the years 1126 to 1142,to some of which he was an eyewitness, is sympathetic to the empress's cause, but not uncritical of her. Edmund King offers a complete revision of K. R. Potter's edition of 1955, retaining only the translation, which has been amended in places. Not only is this a new edition but it offers a new text, arguing that what have earlier been seen as William of Malmesbury's final revisions are not from hishand. Rather they seem to come from somewhere in the circle of Robert of Gloucester, the empress's half-brother, to whom the work is dedicated. In this way the work raises important questions concerning the transmission of medieval texts.
Scholars have long been interested in the extent to which the Anglo-Saxon past can be understood using material written, and produced, in the twelfth century; and simultaneously in the continued importance (or otherwise) of the Anglo-Saxon past in the generations following the Norman Conquest of England. In order to better understand these issues, this volume provides a series of essays that moves scholarship forward in two significant ways. Firstly, it scrutinises how the Anglo-Saxon past continued to be reused and recycled throughout the longue durée of the twelfth century, as opposed to the early decades that are usually covered. Secondly, by bringing together scholars who are experts in various different scholarly disciplines, the volume deals with a much broader range of historical, linguistic, legal, artistic, palaeographical and cultic evidence than has hitherto been the case. Divided into four main parts: The Anglo-Saxon Saints; Anglo-Saxon England in the Narrative of Britain; Anglo-Saxon Law and Charter; and Art-history and the French Vernacular, it scrutinises the majority of different genres of source material that are vital in any study of early medieval British history. In so doing the resultant volume will become a standard reference point for students and scholars alike interested in the ways in which the Anglo-Saxon past continued to be of importance and interest throughout the twelfth century.
William of Malmesbury's Regesta Regum Anglorum (Deeds of the English Kings) is one of the great histories of England, and one of the most important historical works of the European Middle Ages. Volume II of the Oxford Medieval Texts edition provides a full historical introduction, a detailed textual commentary, and an extensive bibliography. It forms the essential complement to the text and translation which appeared in Volume I.
This book provides an analytical overview of the vast range of historiography which was produced in western Europe over a thousand-year period between c.400 and c.1500. Concentrating on the general principles of classical rhetoric central to the language of this writing, alongside the more familiar traditions of ancient history, biblical exegesis and patristic theology, this survey introduces the conceptual sophistication and semantic rigour with which medieval authors could approach their narratives of past and present events, and the diversity of ends to which this history could then be put. By providing a close reading of some of the historians who put these linguistic principles and strategies into practice (from Augustine and Orosius through Otto of Freising and William of Malmesbury to Machiavelli and Guicciardini), it traces and questions some of the key methodological changes that characterise the function and purpose of the western historiographical tradition in this formative period of its development.
The Old English literary works traditionally associated with King Alfred are furnished with an array of prologues, epilogues, and other frame texts. These texts give fascinating glimpses into the ideas and contexts underlying the composition and reception of the Alfredian corpus. They draw attention to the ways in which authority and authorship interacted in the period and to contemporary perceptions of poetry and prose. This new edition addresses the contextual, critical, and theoretical issues raised by the frame texts, including their relationship to earlier traditions of prologue and epilogue, their engagement with English as a literary language, and their implications for the authorship debate. The texts are edited here for the first time in a single volume, with a facing-page modern English translation and a wide range of explanatory material.
Unlike monks and nuns, clergy have hitherto been sidelined in accounts of the Middle Ages, but they played an important role in medieval society. This first broad-ranging study in English of the secular clergy examines how ordination provided a framework for clerical life cycles and outlines the influence exerted on secular clergy by monastic ideals before tracing typical career paths for clerics. Concentrating on northern France, England and Germany in the period c.800–c.1200, Julia Barrow explores how entry into the clergy usually occurred in childhood, with parents making decisions for their sons, although other relatives, chiefly clerical uncles, were also influential. By comparing two main types of family structure, Barrow supplies an explanation of why Gregorian reformers faced little serious opposition in demanding an end to clerical marriage in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Changes in educational provision c.1100 also help to explain growing social and geographical mobility among clerics.
