Archaeology, and in particular the study of ceramics, lies at the heart of the interpretive schemes that underpin Framing the Early Middle Ages. While this is to be welcomed, it is proposed that even more extensive use of archaeological evidence - especially that generated through the excavation of prehistoric burial-mounds and rural settlements, as well as the study of early medieval coins - would have produced a rather more dynamic and nuanced picture of the transformations in social and political structures (...) that marked the passage from late Roman Britain to Anglo-Saxon England. (shrink)

Long before the invention of the mechanical clock, the monastic computes offered a model of time that was visible, durable, portable and objectifiable. The development of ‘temporal literacy’ among the Anglo-Saxons involved not only the measurement of time but also the ways in which the technologies used to measure and record time — from sundials and church bells to calendars and chronicles — worked to create and reorder cultural capital, and add new scope and range to the life of (...) the imagination. Techniques of time measurement are deeply implicated in historical consciousness and the assertion of identity; this paper proposes some avenues of exploration for this topic among the Anglo-Saxons. (shrink)

In 796 the Abbey of St. Martin at Tours acquired a new abbot. The brethren soon began to complain about his habit of attracting unwelcome English tourists. They were said to have cried, “O God, deliver this monastery from these Britishers who come swarming round this countryman of theirs like bees returning to a mother bee.” The abbot was Alcuin: scholar, teacher, and moving spirit behind the Carolingian Renaissance. The words of the brethren are a fitting reminder that Alcuin belonged (...) to two worlds: the world of the Carolingian court and the world from which he had come, the school of York. Alcuin had left York in his mid forties in 781, but York had not left him. He sent correspondence to Northumbria and to other areas of Anglo-Saxon England and returned to England twice, in 786 with the legatine mission and in 790-93. Alcuin's intellectual standing was high and owed much to his influence at the Carolingian court. He was thus a figure to whom the Anglo-Saxon clergy looked for inspiration and example. Although never advancing beyond deacon's orders, he formulated ideals about the role, function, and spiritual authority of bishops in the land he had left. These ideals are found in his poem praising the see of York and its school and in his correspondence. It is the purpose of this article to investigate these ideals. (shrink)

The book as a symbol of totality and logocentric order has become a familiar motif in histories of medieval culture. In recent years numerous studies have examined in detail not only how this “idea of the book” and its dependent metaphors rendered all experience “legible,” but also how the tasks of ensuring a correct “reading” devolved upon exegesis and commentary.

This book offers an analysis of the status and function of the Anglo-Saxon prognostics in their manuscript context, a study of their introduction to and transmission in Anglo-Saxon England, and, for the first time, a comprehensive edition of prognostics in Old English and Latin.

Originally published in 1931, Muirhead’s study aims to challenge the view that Locke’s empiricism is the main philosophical thought to come out of England, suggesting that the Platonic tradition is much more prominent. These views are explored in detail in this text as well as touching on its development in the nineteenth century from Coleridge to Bradley and discussions on Transcendentalism in the United States. This title will be of interest to students of Philosophy.

Originally published in 1931, Muirhead’s study aims to challenge the view that Locke’s empiricism is the main philosophical thought to come out of England, suggesting that the Platonic tradition is much more prominent. These views are explored in detail in this text as well as touching on its development in the nineteenth century from Coleridge to Bradley and discussions on Transcendentalism in the United States. This title will be of interest to students of Philosophy.