The prospective purchaser of this book will want to know what it contains, as the title, while intriguing, is not self‐explanatory. The answer is that it consists of new editions of four texts relating to the history of the monastery of Wearmouth‐Jarrow and in particular to its first abbots, between the years 672/3 and 716. These are accompanied by translations, notes and a lengthy introduction. Three of the works concerned, a homily for the commemoration of the death of Benedict Biscop, the History of the Abbots of Wearmouth and Jarrow, and the Letter to Bishop Ecgbert of York, are certainly by Bede (672/3–735). The fourth, an anonymous Life of Ceolfrid, may also be by him, but that suggestion is strongly contested here on stylistic and other grounds.
The history of the Northumbrian kingdom in the late seventh and early eighth centuries has seen an upsurge in scholarly interest in recent years, making the appearance of a new edition of some key texts, such as the ones offered here, particularly welcome. Much of what has been written about it has been overly speculative, taking the form of ever more tortuous hypotheses about secular and political alignments in the Northumbrian court and church. More cautious, evidence‐based analysis is required, to replace ingenious but frequently incredible claims about how our sources are deceiving us. Even in this volume doubt is cast on Bede's own account of the foundation of Jarrow, and on the history and nature of the relationship between the two houses. As such speculations are of their nature ephemeral, their presence risks the premature aging of an edition intended for more robust resistance to the tests of time. It might have been helpful instead to have had more attention paid to the history of scholarship on these texts, and much fuller discussion of their different genres and purposes, along with consideration of the physical context of their production, the monastery of Wearmouth‐Jarrow itself.
A substantial section of the introduction is devoted to the Latin style of the four works, in part to help solve the question of the possibly Bedan authorship of the Vita Ceolfridi. This cannot be done conclusively, as is here admitted (p. xcv), but in the process a useful discussion of Bede's style in these minor works can now be added to those focused exclusively on the Historia Ecclesiastica. The subsequent section on the manuscripts, pp. xcvi–cxvi, is less substantial than it might have been. There is hardly any kind of codicological description, and even the scripts are not identified. This is all too common in editions of classical texts, whose manuscript traditions are always long removed from the time of composition. There is, however, rarely such justification with medieval ones, and in any case provision of detailed palaeographic and codicological descriptions is a valuable service to future scholarship on the manuscripts concerned. To be fair, here the contents of some manuscripts are described much more fully than others, and there are some useful discussions of the relationships between them. In particular, a detailed case is made for the two most significant manuscripts of the Historia Abbatum – London, British Library, Harley 3020 (H
The translations of the texts are generally reliable but sometimes jarring, as in such phrases as ‘it is absolutely stupid to trample down the riches of this life and to do it … in order to win the empty praise of mortal men, stupid of their own accord to undergo the labours of this age apart from the future hope of rest and peace’ (pp. 3 and 5). This passage also illustrates a tendency to follow the sentence structure of the original, even at the cost of intelligibility; though this is not consistent, as sometimes sentences are broken up unnecessarily. It might have been helpful to use the text of the Authorised or Douai Versions when Bede is quoting Scripture directly. No mention is made of the forms of biblical text used in the works edited here, though there is a useful index of quotations and allusions at the end, following the Bibliography.
On the key question of whether this edition represents a significant textual advance on those that preceded it, in addition to the merit of being the first to provide facing translations, it needs emphasizing that it is based, for two of the four works included, on manuscripts unknown to earlier editors. In the case of the commemorative homily on Biscop, this results in an improvement on the 1955 version of this text contained in David Hurst's edition of Bede's opera homiletica in Corpus Christianorum 122 (pp. 88–94), which has been the subject of wider criticism. On the other hand, use for the first time of what is clearly the earliest extant manuscript of Bede's letter to Bishop Ecgbert (The Hague, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 70 H7, dated to the tenth century) has not led to any significant change to the form of the text contained in Plummer's edition. The only doubt about the versions of the four works offered here might be the inclusion of some headings contained only in single manuscripts in the edited text rather than in the otherwise excellent apparatus criticus. Useful historical and other notes accompany the translation, though it can be annoying just to be referred to the Historia Ecclesiastica, when the editors could have easily provided the necessary information on persons and dates themselves.
Overall, the verdict must be that this is a very useful and scholarly rather than a revolutionary edition, largely because three of the four texts included were already well edited by Plummer in 1896. There are marked strengths, but also some deficiencies and regrettable omissions in the introductory materials. The focus on Wearmouth‐Jarrow prevented the inclusion of Bede's other hagiographic writings, notably the verse life of St Cuthbert, which is not easy of access, but a case could have been made for adding Cuthbert's letter describing the death of Bede to the contents. However, it would be unjust to end with other than gratitude to the two editors for what they have provided. Were the Oxford University Press to consider publishing some of the volumes of the OMT series in paperback, to make them more accessible, this book should be amongst the very first.
By Judith McClure
