Bede and the Theory of Everything

(Hardback)

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This book investigates the life and world of Bede (c. 673-735), foremost scholar of the early Middle Ages and 'the father of English history'. It examines his notable feats, including calculating the first tide-tables; playing a role in the creation of the Ceolfrith Bibles and the Lindisfarne Gospels; writing the earliest extant Old English poetry and the earliest translation of part of the Bible into English; and composing his famous Ecclesiastical History of the English People, with its single dating system. Despite never leaving Northumbria, Bede also wrote a guide to the Holy Land. Michelle P. Brown, an authority on the period, describes new discoveries regarding Bede's handwriting, his research programme and his previously lost Old English translation of St John's Gospel, dictated on his deathbed.

Reviews

"A wonderfully readable and comprehensive introduction to perhaps the greatest European intellectual of his era, a writer whose scholarly achievement was foundational for much of the thought of the Western Middle Ages. Brown succeeds in giving us a lively picture of the material surroundings of Bede's life and work as well a solid account of his thinking."--Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury

Author Bio

Michelle P. Brown is Professor Emerita of Medieval Manuscript Studies at the School of Advanced Study, University of London, and was formerly Curator of Illuminated Manuscripts at the British Library. Her books include Art of the Islands (2016) and The Lindisfarne Gospels (2003).