Old English Prose of Secular Learning

Description

With the assistance of Gwynneth M. D. Mills and Adrienne Pedder. An essential resource for scholarly research, this new series of annotated bibliographies covers Old and Middle English literature outside those major subject areas already served by existing bibliographies. Coverage includes editions of texts; manuscripts and textual studies; lexical, grammatical and stylistic studies; bibliographies and indexes; interpretive and critical studies; commentaries on metrics and versification. The Old English writings usually termed 'secular' are particularly relevant to the development of cultural studies, especially the study of education and the assimilation of classical learning in the Anglo-Saxon period. The annotations of this volume cover the prose proverbs, dialogues and romances, the computistical texts and Byrhtferth's 'Enchiridion', as well as the magico-medical literature and associated texts (including the prognostics and the lapidary). General Editor's Preface ix Acknowledgements xi Abbreviations xii General Introduction 1 I: Proverbs "Dicts of Cato" Introduction 15 Annotations 26 Durham and Other Proverbs Introduction 34 Annotations 41 II: Dialogues "Solomon and Saturn" and "Adrian and Ritheus" Introduction 51 Annotations 62 "Elucidarium" Introduction 76 Annotations 82 III: Romance "Apollonius of Tyre" Introduction 89 Annotations 101 "Alexander's Letter to Aristotle" and "Wonders of the East" Introduction 117 Annotations 128 IV: Byrhtferth of Ramsey and Computus Byrhtferth of Ramsey Introduction 149 Annotations 163 Computus Introduction 185 Annotations 190 V: Magico-Medical Literature Magico-Medical Literature (Explanatory Note) 199 "Lapidary" Introduction 200 Annotations 205 "Leechbook", "Lacnunga", Recipes and Folk Lore Introduction "Leechbook" 211 "Lacnunga" 219 Recipe Collections 230 Prose Charms and Headings 239 Concordance to Editions 250 Prognostics, Alphabet Divination, Tables of Lucky and Unlucky Days, Prohibition against Bloodletting 257 "On the Human Foetus" 270 Annotations 271 Herbal and "Peri Didaxeon" Introduction Enlarged Herbarium and "Medicina de Quadrupedibus" 311 Plant Names 325 "Peri Didaxeon" 327 Annotations 329 General and Miscellaneous Magico-Medical Annotations 341 Index of Authors 385 Subject Index 391