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The Poetic Art of Aldhelm

Andy Orchard author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:14th Dec '06

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The Poetic Art of Aldhelm cover

A substantial study of the Latin poetry of Aldhelm, 'the first English man of letters'.

This is a book-length study of the poetic style of Aldhelm of Malmesbury, 'the first English man of letters' and one of the earliest Anglo-Saxons whose writings survive. Andy Orchard traces the sources and models for Aldhelm's Latin poetry and the nature and extent of his influence on later Anglo-Latin verse.Aldhelm of Malmesbury has been described as 'the first English man of letters'. He was the first Germanic author to compose extensively in Latin metrical verse, and his Latin works were amongst the most influential in Anglo-Saxon England. Aldhelm can also be considered the best-read of Anglo-Saxon poets, in both senses of the phrase: he read most and was most read. In this first book-length study of Aldhelm's poetic art Andy Orchard traces the sources and models for Aldhelm's idiosyncratic style, as well as the nature and extent of his influence on later Anglo-Latin verse. Aldhelm's innovations in Latin verse technique are emphasized, in particular his special debt to the specific techniques of Old English vernacular verse.

"...I found Orchard's arguments persuasive and his lists of lexical localizations impressive....Orchard's statistical tables represent an amazing amount of old-fashioned reading and remembering, very much in keeping with what we know of Aldhelm's and his fellow poets' practices." Modern Philology
"Andy Orchard has written a penetrating, eloquent, and original volume on Aldhelm of Malmesbury's Latin poetry." Scott Gwara, Speculum

ISBN: 9780521034579

Dimensions: 228mm x 151mm x 18mm

Weight: 491g

332 pages