England and the Twelfth-Century Renaissance

Books and learning in 12th-century Europe are the broad concern of the nineteen papers assembled here. The discussion of ’books’ ranges from important individual manuscripts, to collections manufactured in ’scriptoria’ and kept in ’libraries’; the ’learning’ is primarily the composition, transmission and study of Latin literary texts, both ancient and contemporary. Special attention is given to the Latin classics, to the literary culture of the larger Benedictine houses, to the phenomenal quantity of Latin satirical writing of the period, and to the dissemination and reception of texts and ideas over time. While the geographical focus is England, the relationship of English materials and developments to the wider European context is constantly emphasized.

Contents: Foreword; Books & Learning: The library of Bury St Edmunds Abbey in the 11th and 12th centuries; Books and learning at Gloucester Abbey in the 12th and 13th centuries; Robert Amiclas: a 12th-century Parisian master and his books; Some collections of Latin verse from St Albans Abbey and the provenance of MSS Rawl. C. 562, 568-9; Reading and Writing at Bury St Edmunds Abbey: A 12th-century letter from Bury St Edmunds Abbey; Two 12th-century poems on the regnum-sacredotum problem in England; An English eyewitness of the Peace of Venice,1177; Hagiography and Liturgy: the Cult of St Edmund of East Anglia: Two versions of a saint’s life from St Edmund’s Abbey: changing currents in 12th-century monastic style; Geoffrey of Wells, ’De Infantia Sancti Edmundi’; The music of the office of St Edmund King and Martyr; Twelfth-Century Satire: The origins of Latin Satire in 12th-century Europe; What is Entheticus?; The satirical works of Berengar of Poitiers: an edition with introduction; The Descent of Latin Classics: Where were the Latin classics in 12th-century England?; The reception of Censorinus, De die natali, in pre-Renaissance Europe; A 13th-century Plautus florilegium from Bury St Edmunds Abbey; British Library Royal 15 C xi: a manuscript of Plautius’ plays from Salisbury Cathedral c.1100; England and the twelfth-century Renaissance: The Norman Conquest and English libraries; England and the 12th-century renaissance; Index of manuscripts; General Index.