A Companion to Bede: A Reader’s Commentary on The Ecclesiastical History of the English People

Description

The Venerable Bede’s history of the Christian church in England, written in the early eighth century, still stands as a significant literary work. Translated from Latin into various other languages, Bede’s fascinating history has long been widely studied.

Thirteen centuries later, this thorough and reliable guide by J. Robert Wright enables today’s readers to follow the major English translations of Bede’s work and to understand exactly what Bede was saying, what he meant, and why his words and account remain so important. Wright’sCompanion to Bede provides the answers to most questions that careful, intelligent readers of Bede are apt to ask. Despite the countless numbers of books and articles about Bede, there is no other comprehensive companion to his text that can be read in tandem with the medieval author himself.

A Giniger book

John V. Fleming
— Princeton University
“J. Robert Wright’s Companion to Bede is designed for first-time readers of the Ecclesiastical History, for whom it offers most welcome guidance, encouragement, and reassurance. It will prove hardly less useful to the seasoned medievalist, for Wright clarifies, without oversimplification, the sometimes puzzling structure of Bede’s greatest work and the interrelationships of its subjects and themes. This judicious and uncluttered commentary is of the sort that only an encyclopedic command of the historiography of early England could enable. A most valuable work.”

Author

J. Robert Wright is the St. Mark’s Professor of Ecclesiastical History at General Theological Seminary in New York City. A fellow of the Royal Historical Society of London, he is also the historiographer of the Episcopal Church and the president of the Anglican Society. He is the author of nearly 200 articles, as well as many books, including The Church and the English Crown, 1305–1334 and Lift High the Cross.