The Chronology and Canon of Ælfric of Eynsham

374 Pages·2019·10.525 MB·English

by  Aaron J. Kleist

Anglo-Saxon Studies 37
THE CHRONOLOGY AND CANON
OF ÆLFRIC OF EYNSHAM
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Anglo-Saxon Studies
ISSN 1475–2468
GENERAL EDITORS
John Hines
Catherine Cubitt
‘Anglo-Saxon Studies’ aims to provide a forum for the best scholarship on the
Anglo-Saxon peoples in the period from the end of Roman Britain to the Norman
Conquest, including comparative studies involving adjacent populations and
periods; both new research and major re-assessments of central topics are welcomed.
Books in the series may be based in any one of the principal disciplines of archae-
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Proposals or enquiries may be sent directly to the editors or the publisher at
the addresses given below; all submissions will receive prompt and informed
consideration.
Professor John Hines, School of History, Archaeology and Religion, Cardiff
University, John Percival Building, Colum Drive, Cardiff, Wales, CF10 3EU, UK
Professor Catherine Cubitt, School of History, Faculty of Arts and Humanities,
University of East Anglia, Norwich, England, NR4 7TJ, UK
Boydell & Brewer, PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk, England, IP12 3DF, UK
Previously published volumes in the series are listed at the back of this book
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THE CHRONOLOGY AND CANON
OF ÆLFRIC OF EYNSHAM
Aaron J. Kleist
D. S. BREWER
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© Aaron J. Kleist 2019
All Rights Reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation
no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system,
published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast,
transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means,
without the prior permission of the copyright owner
The right of Aaron J. Kleist to be identified as
the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with
sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
First published 2019
D. S. Brewer, Cambridge
ISBN 978-1-84384-533-1
D. S. Brewer is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd
PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK
and of Boydell & Brewer Inc.
668 Mt Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620–2731, USA
website: www.boydellandbrewer.com
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
The publisher has no responsibility for the continued existence or accuracy of URLs for
external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee
that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate
This publication is printed on acid-free paper
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Contents
List of Illustrations  vi
Acknowledgements  vii
List of Abbreviations  viii
ÆlfricianManuscriptSigla  ix
Introduction  1
1. Ælfric’s Chronology  5
KeyDates  6
TheDevelopmentoftheCatholicHomilies  20
Appendices1–3  51
2. The Ælfrician Canon  66
1.Homilies  71
2.SeparateWorks  119
3.Non-LiturgicalNarrativePieces  131
4.Letters  149
5.Prefaces  165
6.EpitomesandAbridgements  166
7.Miscellanea  186
8.Notes  198
3. Ælfrician Manuscripts  207
Manuscript Descriptions
ManuscriptsReferencedbyClemoes,Godden,and/orPope  208
OtherManuscriptsContainingWorksbyÆlfric  249
WitnessestotheGrammarandGlossary  258
WitnessestoTheOldEnglishElyPrivilege  262
Transcriptions  265
TheManuscriptDistributionofÆlfric’sWorks  269

Appendix4:Compendium  276
WorksCited  309
Index  336
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Illustrations
Tables
 1 Key Dates for Ælfric’s Chronology  7
 2 The Initial Completion of the Catholic Homilies  14
 3 Phases δ, ε, and ζ of CH I  33
 4 Canon Contents  67
 5 Witnesses to CH I by Dissemination Phase  74
 6 First Series Dates  76
 7 Witnesses to CH II by Dissemination Phase  81
 8 Second Series Dates  83
 9 Second Series Homilies in Thorpe and Godden  85
10 Supplementary Homilies Dates  88
11 Witnesses to SH I and II  94
12 Witnesses to TH I  98
13 Witnesses to TH II  102
14 Lives of Saints Dates  136
15 Witnesses to LS  140
16 Lives of Saints in Skeat and Clayton–Mullins  142
17 The Manuscript Distribution of Ælfric’s Works  270
Figure
 1 The Relationship of Manuscripts of the DEF Group
(Archetypes 1a and 1b, First Recension of CH II Dissemination)  43
vi
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Acknowledgements
I am deeply grateful to Clare Hall and the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse
and Celtic at the University of Cambridge for allowing me to spend part of 2008
pursuing this project as a Visiting Fellow and Honorary Research Associate, respec-
tively, and to Biola University, the Fulbright program, and the National Endowment
for the Humanities for financial support that made this research possible. Invaluable
counsel came from Mary Clayton, Joyce Hill, Drew Jones, Robert Upchurch, and
Jonathan Wilcox, among others, for whom I hold deep affection and respect. To
Robert Brown and Megan Brady I am indebted for their gracious assistance with
proofreading and Chris Reed for typesetting. My children, Chayila and Ransom,
longsufferingly supported many an hour of bookish hibernation. As ever, however,
it is Amanda to whom honours are particularly due: at personal cost, she shaped a
shelter that concentration might be borne of quiet.
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Abbreviations
ACMRS Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies
ASE Anglo-SaxonEngland
ASMMF Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in Microfiche Facsimile
AST Anglo-Saxon Texts
EEMF Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile
EETS Early English Text Society
e.s. extra series
o.s. original series
s.s. supplementary series
CCSL Corpus Christianorum Series Latin
CH Catholic Homilies
CSASE Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England
LS Lives of Saints
LSE Leeds Studies in English
N&Q NotesandQueries
PL Patrologia Latina
RES TheReviewofEnglishStudies
SEM Studies in the Early Middle Ages
SEMLL Studies in English Medieval Language and Literature
SH Supplemental Homilies
TH Temporale Homilies
UK Upchurch and Kleist
viii
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