The Text of the Old Testament in Anglo-Saxon England

by Richard Marsden

Overview

The early medieval Vulgate Bible had no fixed textual form—multiple copying resulted in a multitude of forms. This book is the first to describe the transmission of the Vulgate Old Testament in Anglo-Saxon England. Following an introduction that explains the wider continental history in which the dissemination of the scriptures occurred, Richard Marsden analyzes nineteen surviving Latin manuscripts and further translations of scripture into Old English. His book illuminates important areas of monastic and intellectual life, and establishes textual history as a dimension of wider Anglo-Saxon history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521464772
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/02/1995
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England , #15
Pages:	536
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 1.30(d)

Table of Contents

List of illustrations; Preface; List of abbreviations; List of manuscript sigla; 1. Introduction; 2. Early Southumbrian scholars and writers; 3. Early Northumbria: Wearmouth-Jarrow and Ceolfrith's pandects; 4. The Codex Amiatinus, a sister pandect and the Bibles at Vivarium; 5. The Ceolfrithian text; 6. Early Northumbrian scholars and writers; 7. Part-Bibles of the eighth and ninth centuries; 8. The Egerton codex; 9. Wisdom books in non-biblical manuscripts; 10. The late period: the 'Royal' Bible; 11. The late period: Bible fragments; 12. Vernacular evidence for the Old Testament; 13. Conclusion; Appendix; Bibliography; Index of manuscripts; Scriptural index; General index.

Editorial Reviews

"Marsden concludes that the history of the Old Testament text in Anglo-Saxon England not only reflects the intellectual history of the period but is part of it." New Testament Abstracts

"An impressive feat of sustained scholarship and rigorous thinking, The Text of the Old Testament in Anglo-Saxon England is a major contribution to Anglo-Saxon studies. The book is remarkably error-free considering its length and complexity; it is handsomely produced in the usual Cambridge style, with useful indices of manuscript and scriptural citations." Envoi

"...this study will remain the authoritative examination of its topic. It is recommended with great enthusiasm to paleographers, historians of exegesis, biblical-textual historians, and historians of Anglo-Saxon England." Kevin Madigan, Church History

"The prose is lucid, the scope comprehensive, and the organization well conceived. Marsden's learning is wide, and deep..." J.R. Hall, Speculum

"This learned, meticulous, and beautifully printed volume provides scholars with an authoritative guide to the texts of the Vulgate Old Testament that were available in Anglo-Saxon England and the relationships between them. It is a work of exmeplary clarity from its initial assignation of sigla to the twenty extant manuscripts and numerous fragments to its detailed critical textual analysis of all parts of the extant texts and the helpful historical and cultural background provided for each manuscript and fragment. ...Richard Marsden's study extends not just to extant manuscripts but also to what can be deduced from the scriptual quotations in the leading Anglo-Saxon exegetical , hagiographical, and historical works and to the texts that underly the surviving Old English translations of books of the Old Testament." N.P. Brooks, American Historical Review

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