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For scholars in the European Middle Ages, Isidore, bishop of
Seville (560? - 636) was one of the most influential authorities
for understanding the natural world. Isidore's On the Nature of
Things is the first work on natural science by a Christian author
that is not a commentary on the creation story in Genesis. Instead,
Isidore adopted a classical model to describe the structure of the
physical cosmos, and discuss the principles of astronomy, physics,
geography, meteorology and time-reckoning. Into this framework he
incorporated an eclectic array of ancient and patristic erudition.
The fact that On the Nature of Things presents an essentially
Greco-Roman picture of the universe, but amplified with Christian
reflections and allegories, played a crucial role in the
assimilation of ancient science into the emerging culture of the
Middle Ages. It exerted a deep and long-lasting influence on
scholars like Bede, one of whose earliest works was an adaptation
of On the Nature of Things. On the Nature of Things provides a new
window into vital intellectual currents, as yet largely unexplored,
flowing from Visigothic Spain into Celtic Ireland, Anglo-Saxon
England, and Merovingian France. This is the first translation of
this work into English. The introduction places the work in the
context of Isidore's milieu and concerns, and traces the remarkable
diffusion of his book. A chapter-by-chapter commentary explains how
Isidore selected and transformed his source material, and added his
own distinctive features, notably the diagrams that gave this work
its medieval name The Book of Wheels (Liber rotarum).
Commenting on the Bible was the principal way in which early
medieval Christians conducted the work of theology; commentaries
also open a window for modern readers onto the way in which these
people strove to understand humanity, the world and history through
complex acts of layered winterpretation and cross-referencing
within the sacred text. Bede's commentary on Luke, composed in the
first half of the 710s, is a turning point in his career as an
exegete. It is ambitious in its length, but also in its
subject-matter, because the life of Christ is the key to the
meaning of the entire Bible. To expound a Gospel also entails
engaging with a formidable body of commentary by the Church
Fathers. In Bede's case, the Luke commentary marks as well the
moment when he publically asserts his own intellectual authority by
displaying his mastery of the Patristic tradition, and by deftly
confronting criticisms of his earlier works. Finally, Bede's
treatment of Luke was highly influential in the Carolingian
Renaissance, and in the compilation of the Glossa Ordinaria in the
twelfth century. This translation is thus an important resource for
historians, as well as scholars interested in the role of the Bible
in medieval culture.
The Venerable Bede composed On the Nature of Things (De natura
rerum) and On Times (De temporibus) at the outset of his career,
about AD 703. Bede fashioned himself as a teacher to his people and
his age, and these two short works show him selecting, editing, and
clarifying a mass of difficult and sometimes dangerous material. He
insisted that his reader understand the mathematical and physical
basis of time, and though he was dependent on his textual sources,
he also included observations of his own. But Bede was also a
Christian exegete who thought deeply and earnestly about how
salvation-history connected to natural history and the history of
the peoples of the earth. To comprehend his religious mentality, we
have to take on board his views on "science" -- and vice versa. On
the Nature of Things is a survey of cosmology. Starting with
Creation and the universe as a whole, Bede reads the cosmos
downwards from the heavens, through the atmosphere, to the oceans
and rivers of earth. This order (recapitulating the four elements
or fire, air, water and earth) was derived from his main source,
Isidore of Seville's On the Nature of Things. However, Bede
separated out Isidore's chapters on time, and dealt with them in On
Times. On Times, like its "second, revised and enlarged edition"
The Reckoning of Time (De temporum ratione), works upwards from the
smallest units of time, through the day and night, the week, month
and year, to the world-ages. Bede's innovation is to introduce a
practical manual of Easter reckoning, or computus, into this
survey. Hidden beneath the matter-of-fact surface of the work is an
intense polemic about the correct principles for determining the
date of Easter -- principles which in Bede's view are bound up with
both the integrity of nature as God's creation, and the theological
significance of Christ's death and resurrection. In these works
Bede re-united cosmology and time-reckoning to form a unified
science of computus that would become the framework for Carolingian
and Scholastic basic scientific education.
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Bede: On Genesis (Paperback)
Bede; Translated by Calvin B. Kendall; Commentary by Calvin B. Kendall
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R995
Discovery Miles 9 950
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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This is the first English translation of the Venerable Bede's
commentary on the book of Genesis. Dealing as it does with the
biblical account of the creation of the world and of mankind, and
of mankind's fall from grace and exile into the life of time, On
Genesis offers essential insights into Bede's fundamental
assumptions as a theologian, historian, and scientific cosmologist.
Bede's role in laying the foundations of the modern world cannot be
overemphasised. From his quantitative approach to questions of
science to his introduction of the Anno Domini system of dating and
his text-critical methods of biblical analysis, he anticipated and
influenced modern ways of thinking. Bede regarded the opening
chapters of Genesis as the foundation narrative of the world. From
it Bede derived the theoretical basis for his scientific treatises
and his notion of the English as a chosen people of God, which
informs the Ecclesiastical History. This translation and
introduction attempts to make Bede's commentary accessible to
anyone with an interest in his work.
For scholars in the European Middle Ages, Isidore, bishop of
Seville (560? - 636) was one of the most influential authorities
for understanding the natural world. Isidore's On the Nature of
Things is the first work on natural science by a Christian author
that is not a commentary on the creation story in Genesis. Instead,
Isidore adopted a classical model to describe the structure of the
physical cosmos, and discuss the principles of astronomy, physics,
geography, meteorology and time-reckoning. Into this framework he
incorporated an eclectic array of ancient and patristic erudition.
The fact that On the Nature of Things presents an essentially
Greco-Roman picture of the universe, but amplified with Christian
reflections and allegories, played a crucial role in the
assimilation of ancient science into the emerging culture of the
Middle Ages. It exerted a deep and long-lasting influence on
scholars like Bede, one of whose earliest works was an adaptation
of On the Nature of Things. On the Nature of Things provides a new
window into vital intellectual currents, as yet largely unexplored,
flowing from Visigothic Spain into Celtic Ireland, Anglo-Saxon
England, and Merovingian France. This is the first translation of
this work into English. The introduction places the work in the
context of Isidore's milieu and concerns, and traces the remarkable
diffusion of his book. A chapter-by-chapter commentary explains how
Isidore selected and transformed his source material, and added his
own distinctive features, notably the diagrams that gave this work
its medieval name The Book of Wheels (Liber rotarum).
The Venerable Bede composed On the Nature of Things (De natura
rerum) and On Times (De temporibus) at the outset of his career,
about AD 703. Bede fashioned himself as a teacher to his people and
his age, and these two short works show him selecting, editing, and
clarifying a mass of difficult and sometimes dangerous material. He
insisted that his reader understand the mathematical and physical
basis of time, and though he was dependent on his textual sources,
he also included observations of his own. But Bede was also a
Christian exegete who thought deeply and earnestly about how
salvation-history connected to natural history and the history of
the peoples of the earth. To comprehend his religious mentality, we
have to take on board his views on "science" -- and vice versa. On
the Nature of Things is a survey of cosmology. Starting with
Creation and the universe as a whole, Bede reads the cosmos
downwards from the heavens, through the atmosphere, to the oceans
and rivers of earth. This order (recapitulating the four elements
or fire, air, water and earth) was derived from his main source,
Isidore of Seville's On the Nature of Things. However, Bede
separated out Isidore's chapters on time, and dealt with them in On
Times. On Times, like its "second, revised and enlarged edition"
The Reckoning of Time (De temporum ratione), works upwards from the
smallest units of time, through the day and night, the week, month
and year, to the world-ages. Bede's innovation is to introduce a
practical manual of Easter reckoning, or computus, into this
survey. Hidden beneath the matter-of-fact surface of the work is an
intense polemic about the correct principles for determining the
date of Easter -- principles which in Bede's view are bound up with
both the integrity of nature as God's creation, and the theological
significance of Christ's death and resurrection. In these works
Bede re-united cosmology and time-reckoning to form a unified
science of computus that would become the framework for Carolingian
and Scholastic basic scientific education.
This book argues that the formal art of the Old English epic
Beowulf is shaped and determined by the poetic language which the
poet inherited from the traditional, oral culture of Anglo-Saxon
England. The patterns of metre and alliteration exhibited in the
poem were not imposed by the poet on his language, but were part of
the language which he spoke, the rules of which constituted his
metrical grammar. Professor Kendall investigates the constraints of
syntax, metre and alliteration which govern the formal art of
Beowulf. He shows how the half-lines of the poem, which are the
basic units of composition, are marked by the metrical grammar for
placement in the verse clause; he also establishes conditions for
the presence or absence of alliteration, which enable him to say
whether in any given instance the alliterative device is a
mandatory function of the rules of the metrical grammar or an
option exercised by the poet. Professor Kendall alters traditional
views of metre; he concludes the book with a complete index of
scansion according to the rules he has established.
Verse inscriptions in stone appeared in abundance on the facades of
Romanesque churches in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Marking
the place where medieval worshippers were transported from secular
to sacred space, portal verse inscriptions provide important, and
often overlooked, insights into the dynamic function of the portals
and their art. The Allegory of the Church is the first full-length
study of Romanesque verse inscriptions in the context of church
portals and portal sculpture, and is the product of a twenty-year
study. Calvin B. Kendall demonstrates how these inscriptions served
to express the role of the church building as a concrete allegory
of Christ and the Church. Describing them in detail, he traces the
history and nature of the changes in allegorical interpretation of
the inscriptions until, as medieval assumptions about language and
rhetoric changed, they were finally abandoned by Gothic artists. An
exemplary work of interdisciplinary scholarship, The Allegory of
the Church includes a detailed catalogue of Romanesque verse
inscriptions.
This book argues that the formal art of the Old English epic
Beowulf is shaped and determined by the poetic language which the
poet inherited from the traditional, oral culture of Anglo-Saxon
England. The patterns of metre and alliteration exhibited in the
poem were not imposed by the poet on his language, but were part of
the language which he spoke, the rules of which constituted his
metrical grammar. Professor Kendall investigates the constraints of
syntax, metre and alliteration which govern the formal art of
Beowulf. He shows how the half-lines of the poem, which are the
basic units of composition, are marked by the metrical grammar for
placement in the verse clause; he also establishes conditions for
the presence or absence of alliteration, which enable him to say
whether in any given instance the alliterative device is a
mandatory function of the rules of the metrical grammar or an
option exercised by the poet. Professor Kendall alters traditional
views of metre; he concludes the book with a complete index of
scansion according to the rules he has established.
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