HISTORIA ECCLESIASTICA GENTIS ANGLORUM

The '''Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum''' (in English: '''Ecclesiastical History of the English People''') is a work in Latin by the Venerable Bede on the history of the Church in England, and of England generally; its main focus is on the conflict between Roman and Celtic Christianity.
It is considered to be one of the most important original references on Anglo-Saxon history. It is believed to have been completed in 731, when Bede was approximately 60 years old.
Divided into five books (about 400 pages), the ''Historia'' covers the history of England, ecclesiastical and political, from the time of Julius Caesar to the date of its completion (731). The first twenty-one chapters, covering the period before the mission of Augustine, are compiled from earlier writers such as Orosius, Gildas, Prosper of Aquitaine, the letters of Pope Gregory I, and others, with the insertion of legends and traditions.
After AD 596, documentary sources, which Bede took pains to obtain throughout England and from Rome, are used, as well as oral testimony, which he employed along with critical consideration of its authenticity.
The ''Historia'', like other historical writing from this period has a lower degree of objectivity than modern historical writings. It is a mixture of fact, legend and literature. For example, Bede took liberties by making up fictional quotations from people who were not his contemporaries.

Contents

Editions

Translations

Literature

See also

External links

Editions

★ 1475: printed in Germany

★ 1563: "basic edition" (incomplete)

★ 1643: first edition printed in England

★ 1688: "Cologne edition"

★ 1742: Smith

★ 1884: Giles, reprinted in Patrologia Latina

★ 1896 C. Plummer, Oxford

★ 1969: Bertram Colgrave and R. A. B. Mynors, Oxford, Clarendon Press, reprint with corrections 1992

★ 2005: Michael Lapidge, Paris

Translations

Bede's ''Ecclesiastical History'' was translated into Old English at the instance of Alfred the Great, in the 890s.

★ 1565: T. Stapleton, Antwerp

★ 1866: M. M. Wilden, Schaffhausen

★ 1903: L.C. Jane, Temple Classics.

★ 1907: A. M. Sellar, London, George Bell & Sons.

★ 1969: Bertram Colgrave and R. A. B. Mynors, Oxford, Clarendon Press, reprint with corrections 1992

★ 1997: Günter Spitzbart, Darmstadt.

★ 2005: Pierre Monat, Philippe Robin, Paris

Literature

★ Jones, P. A., ''A Concordance to the Historia ecclesiastica of Bede'', Cambridge 1919

★ Wallace-Hadrill, J. M., ''Bede's Ecclesiastical history of the English people : a historical commentary'', Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York : Oxford University Press, 1988.

See also

★ Religion in the United Kingdom

★ St Petersburg Bede (The Leningrad manuscript)

★ Moore Bede

★ Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

External links

★ Bede, ''Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum'', in Latin from The Latin Library.

★ Bede, ''Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation'', Excerpts. From the Internet Medieval Sourcebook.