The Old English Homily: Precedent, Practice, and Appropriation

Description

The quarter-century that has passed since Paul Szarmach’s and Bernard Huppé’s groundbreaking The Old English Homily and its Backgrounds (1978) has seen staggering changes in the field of Anglo-Saxon homiletics. Primary materials have become accessible to scholars in unprecedented levels, whether digitally or through new critical editions, and these have generated in turn a flood of secondary scholarship. The articles in this volume showcase and build on these developments. The first five essays consider various contexts of and infuences on Anglo-Saxon homilies: patristic and early medieval Latin sources, continental homiliaries and preaching practices, traditions of Old Testament interpretation and adaptation, and the liturgical setting of preaching texts. Six studies then turn to the sermons themselves, examining style and rhetoric in the Vercelli homilies, the codicology of the Blickling Book, sanctorale and temporale in the works of Ælfric, and the challenges posed by Wulfstan’s self-referential corpus. Finally, the last entries take us past the Conquest to discuss the re-use of homiletic material in England and its environs from the eleventh to eighteenth century. Together these articles offer medieval scholars a new Old English Homily, one that serves both as an introduction to key figures and issues in the field and as a model of studies for the next quarter-century. Front matter (“Contents”, “List of Abbreviations”, “List of Contributors”, “Acknowledgements”), p. i Free Access Introduction, p. 1 https://doi.org/10.1484/M.SEM-EB.3.3771 Old English Homilies and Latin Sources, p. 15 Charles D. Wright https://doi.org/10.1484/M.SEM-EB.3.3772 Ælfric’s Manuscript of Paul the Deacon’s Homiliary: A Provisional Analysis, p. 67 Joyce Hill https://doi.org/10.1484/M.SEM-EB.3.3773 The Carolingian De festiuitatibus and the Blickling Book, p. 97 Nancy M. Thompson https://doi.org/10.1484/M.SEM-EB.3.3774 The Old Testament Homily: Ælfric as Biblical Translator, p. 121 Rachel Anderson https://doi.org/10.1484/M.SEM-EB.3.3775 The Liturgical Context of Ælfric’s Homilies for Rogation, p. 143 Stephen J. Harris https://doi.org/10.1484/M.SEM-EB.3.3776 Rereading the Style and Rhetoric of the Vercelli Homilies, p. 173 Samantha Zacher https://doi.org/10.1484/M.SEM-EB.3.3777 The Codicology of Anglo-Saxon Homiletic Manuscripts, Especially the Blickling Homilies, p. 209 M. J. Toswell https://doi.org/10.1484/M.SEM-EB.3.3778 Latin Sermons for Saints in Early English Homiliaries and Legendaries, p. 227 Thomas N. Hall https://doi.org/10.1484/M.SEM-EB.3.3779 Homiletic Contexts for Ælfric’s Hagiography: The Legend of Saints Cecilia and Valerian, p. 265 Robert K. Upchurch https://doi.org/10.1484/M.SEM-EB.3.3780 Ælfric’s or Not? The Making of a Temporale Collection in Late Anglo-Saxon England, p. 285 Loredana Teresi https://doi.org/10.1484/M.SEM-EB.3.3781 Wulfstan as Reader, Writer, and Rewriter, p. 311 Andy Orchard https://doi.org/10.1484/M.SEM-EB.3.3782 Old Wine in a New Bottle: Recycled Instructional Materials in Seasons for Fasting, p. 345 Mary P. Richards https://doi.org/10.1484/M.SEM-EB.3.3783 The Circulation of the Old English Homily in the Twelfth Century: New Evidence from Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 343, p. 365 Aidan Conti https://doi.org/10.1484/M.SEM-EB.3.3784 Preaching Past the Conquest: Lambeth Palace 487 and Cotton Vespasian A. XXII, p. 403 Mary Swan https://doi.org/10.1484/M.SEM-EB.3.3785 Anglo-Saxon Homilies in their Scandinavian Context, p. 425 Christopher Abram https://doi.org/10.1484/M.SEM-EB.3.3786 Anglo-Saxon Homiliaries in Tudor and Stuart England, p. 445 Aaron J. Kleist https://doi.org/10.1484/M.SEM-EB.3.3787 Appendix: Anglo-Saxon Homiliaries as Designated by Ker, p. 493 https://doi.org/10.1484/M.SEM-EB.3.3788 Back matter (“Index”), p. 507