Anglo-Saxon England (No. 27)

The discovery in Sonderhausen of a fragmentary psalter glossed in Latin and Old English allows fresh inferences to be drawn regarding the study of the psalter in Anglo-Saxon England, and of the transmission of the corpus of vernacular psalter glosses. A detailed textual and palaeographical study of the Wearmouth-Jarrow bibles leads to the exciting possibility that the hand of Bede can be identified, annotating the text of the Bible which he no doubt played an instrumental role in establishing. Two Latin texts from the circle of Archbishop Wulfstan are published here in full, whilst disciplined philological and historical analysis helps to clarify a puzzling reference in Æthelbert’s law-code to the early medieval practice of providing food render for the king. Finally, the volume contains two pioneering essays in the histoire des mentalités. The usual comprehensive bibliography of the previous year’s publications in all branches of Anglo-Saxon studies rounds off the book.

List of illustrations; 1. Record of the eighth conference of the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists, at Università di Palermo, 7–12 July 1997; 2. Classical rhetoric in Anglo-Saxon England Gabriele Knappe; 2. Cyninges fedesl: the king\'s feeding in Æthelberht, ch. 12 Lisi Oliver; 3. The Minster-in-Thanet foundation story Stephanie Hollis; 4. Manus Bedae: Bede\'s contribution to Ceolfrith\'s bibles Richard Marsden; 5. The transmission and reception of Graeco-Roman mythology in Anglo-Saxon England, 670–800 Michael W. Herren; 6. A neglected early-ninth-century manuscript of the Lindisfarne Vita S. Cuthberti Donald A. Bullough; 7. The transmission of the \'Digby\' corpus of bilingual glosses to Aldhelm\'s Prosa de virginitate Scott Gwara; 8. Exeter Book Riddle 74 and the play of the text John D. Niles; 9. Body and law in late Anglo-Saxon England Katherine O\'Brien O\'Keeffe; 10. Two composite texts from Archbishop Wulfstan\'s ‘commonplace book’: the De ecclesiastica consuetudine and the Institutio beati Amalarii de ecclesiasticis officiis Christopher A. Jones; 11. A newly-found fragment of an Anglo-Saxon psalter Helmut Gneuss; 12. Two runic notes R. I. Page; 13. Bibliography for 1997 Carl T. Berkhout, Carole P. Biggam, Mark Blackburn, Debby Banham, Alexander Rumble and Simon Keynes.