Bede’s Ecclesiastical History is our main source for early Christian
Anglo-Saxon England, but how was it written? When? And why? Scholars
have spent much of the last half century investigating the latter
question – the ‘why’. This new study is the first to
systematically consider the ‘how’ and the ‘when’. Richard Shaw
shows that rather than producing the History at a single point in 731,
Bede was working on it for as much as twenty years, from c. 715 to
just before his death in 735. Unpacking and extending the period of
composition of Bede’s best-known book makes sense of the complicated
and contradictory evidence for its purposes. The work did not have one
context, but several, each with its own distinct constructed
audiences. Thus, the History was not written for a single purpose to
the exclusion of all others. Nor was it simply written for a variety
of reasons. It was written over time – quite a lot of time – and
as the world changed during that time, so too did Bede’s reasons for
writing, the intentions he sought to pursue – and the patrons he
hoped to please or to placate.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780429663666
Publisert
2022
Utgave
1. utgave
Utgiver
Taylor & Francis
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter