William of Malmesbury

Front Cover
Boydell Press, 2003 - Biography & Autobiography - 239 pages
William was a historian, biblical commentator, biographer and classicist; his intellectual achievement is studied here.

William of Malmesbury (c.1090-c.1143) was England's greatest historian after Bede. Although best known in his own time, as now, for his historical writings (his famous Deeds of the Bishops and Deeds of the Kings of Britain), William was also a biblical commentator, hagiographer and classicist, and acted as his own librarian, bibliographer, scribe and editor of texts. He was probably the best-read of all twelfth-century men of learning.
This is a comprehensive study and interpretation of William's intellectual achievement, looking at the man and his times and his work as man of letters, and considering the earliest books from Malmesbury Abbey library, William'sreading, and his "scriptorium". Important in its own right, William's achievement is also set in the wider context of Benedictine learning and the writing of history in the twelfth century, and on England's contribution to the "twelfth-century renaissance".
In this new edition, the text has been thoroughly revised, and the bibliography updated to reflect new research; there is also a new chapter on William as historian of the First Crusade.

RODNEY M. THOMSON is Professor Emeritus and Honorary Research Associate in the School of History and Classics, University of Tasmania.

 

Contents

William of Malmesbury and his Environment
3
William as Historian and Man of Letters
21
Williams Reading
67
Williams Scriptorium
76
Malmesbury ex libris and pressmark
113
Oxford Bodleian Library MS Auct F 3 14 f 150v 7 Oxford Bodleian Library MS Rawl G 139 f 2
113
Oxford Lincoln College MS lat 100 f 73
113
London Lambeth Palace Library MS 224 f 1
113
Oxford Bodleian Library MS Auct F 3 14 f 149
113
Oxford Merton College MS 181 f 91
113
Williams Edition of the Liber Pontificalis
121
Williams Carolingian Sources
137
William and the Letters of Alcuin
155
William and some other Western Writers on Islam
168
William and the Noctes Atticae
191
Appendix
199

Oxford Merton College MS 181 f
113
Cambridge Trinity College MS O 5 20 p 17
113
Oxford Bodleian Library MS Arch Seld B 16 f 73
113
Oxford Merton College MS 181 f 120v
113
Contents and Significant Readings of the Gellius
215
Select Bibliography
225
Copyright

Common terms and phrases

abbey Abbot Alcuin Aldhelm Ancient English Scholars Anglo-Saxon Anglo-Saxon Chronicle annotations antiquity Auct Bede Bede's BL Cott Bodl Cambridge Canterbury Catalogue CCCC certainly Chronicle Cicero collation Collectanea collection Comm Commentary on Lamentations compiler containing contemporary continental Crusade Eadmer early edition Einhard eius England evidence exemplar extracts florilegium Francorum Fulcher Gellius Gesta Pontificum Gesta Regum Glastonbury hand Ibid Islam John of Salisbury John of Worcester known Lapidge Leland letters Levison Liber Pontificalis Libr Library libris London M. R. James majuscules manuscript Medieval Merton College Miraculis B. V. M. Oriel College Oxford passage Periphyseon Policr Polyhistor probably prol quire quod quotations quoted R. W. Southern reading reference Scribe script Seld Stubbs sunt twelfth century Vita William knew William of Malmesbury Worcester writing written

References to this book

About the author (2003)

RODNEY M. THOMSON is Emeritus Professor of Medieval History at the University of Tasmania.

Bibliographic information

TitleWilliam of Malmesbury
AuthorRodney M. Thomson
Editionillustrated, revised
PublisherBoydell Press, 2003
ISBN1843830302, 9781843830306
Length239 pages
Subjects ›  ›  › 

Biography & Autobiography / General
Biography & Autobiography / Historical
History / Europe / Great Britain / General
History / Europe / Great Britain / Norman Conquest to Late Medieval (1066-1485)
History / Europe / Medieval
History / Historiography
Religion / Christian Church / History
  
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