Book dossier

Catholic homilies

by Ælfric of Eynsham

"This is the third and final volume of the Society's edition of the Catholic Homilies, a set of preaching texts in two series composed in Old English around A.D. 990 for the use of preachers throughout England. Aelfric (monk of Winchester, and then Cerne Abbas and the first abbot of Eynsham) was one of the leading scholars of his time and the foremost prose stylist of the Anglo-Saxon period. The two series of Catholic Homilies together make up the longest extant text in Old English, and are Aelfric's most important work. The text of the Second Series, edited by M.R. Godden, was published in 1979 (S.S. 5), and the text of the First Series, edited by Peter Clemoes, in 1997 (S.S. 17); both volumes included an analysis of the manuscripts of each series and a detailed account of the textual history. This final volume gives an account of the origin, function and dating of the Catholic Homilies and their Latin sources; a detailed commentary on all eighty homilies; and a glossary of all words occuring in the text."--Jacket.