Bede is the inaugural volume in the Sources of Anglo-Saxon Literary Culture series, which seeks to comprehensively map British literary culture from 500 to 1100 CE. This volume presents four texts, or fascicles, dedicated to the Venerable Bede (d. 735), theologian and author of the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum. Articles provide a wealth of information on Bede through manuscript evidence, medieval library catalogs, citations, and quotations. Using discussions of source relationships, the entries weigh and consider different interpretations of Bede’s works and suggest possibilities for future research. Part of an exciting new reference series, this book“and those that follow“will be indispensable to anyone interested in the history and literature of the period.

This newest volume in a long-running work of mapping the sources of Anglo-Saxon literary culture in England from 500 to 1100 CE takes up one of the most important authors of the period, the eighth-century monk-scholar known as the Venerable Bede. Bede is best known as the author of the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, which is one of the key sources for our historical and cultural knowledge of the period; this collection covers that and more, drawing on manuscript evidence, medieval library catalogues, Anglo-Latin and Old English versions, citations, quotations, and more, putting Bede and his work in the context of his period.