Saints' Lives

Erscheinungsjahr 2014
ISBN: 978-0-674-72865-3
Verlag: Harvard University Press

Buch, Englisch, Band 31, 304 Seiten, Format (B × H): 140 mm x 203 mm, Gewicht: 417 g

Reihe: Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library

The artistry, wit, and erudition of medieval Latin narrative poetry continued to thrive well into the middle of the thirteenth century. No better evidence of this survives than in the long and brilliantly successful career of Henry of Avranches (d. 1262). Professional versifier to abbots, bishops, kings, and at least one pope, Henry displays a pyrotechnical verbal skill and playfulness that rivals that of the Carmina Burana and similar collections of rhymed secular verse. Yet he also stands as self-conscious heir to the great classicizing tradition of the twelfth-century epic poets, above all of Walter of Châtillon. Henry entwines these two strands of his literary inheritance in what might surprise modern readers as an improbable genre. The bulk of Henry’s known output is a series of versified saints’ lives, including those of Francis of Assisi, King Edmund, and Thomas Becket, nearly all of which are based on identified prose models. These two volumes present most of his work in the genre, as witnessed in the English manuscript that remains the linchpin of our knowledge of this remarkable poet’s career.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Townsend, David

Weitere Mitwirkende

Townsend, David

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Kirchengeschichte Hagiographie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Mittelalterliche, neuzeitliche Archäologie (Europa)

Über Autor(innen)

Townsend, David
David Townsend is Professor of Medieval Studies and English at the University of Toronto.