Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 8

Eighth volume in the collaborative edition - early 12C Canterbury manuscript. The introduction details other work by the same hand and his role in re-shaping Anglo-Saxon history.This edition presents a bilingual (Old English and Latin) version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle written by a monk of Christ Church, Canterbury, probably in the first decade of the twelfth century. Though the Old English andLatin texts have been printed separately, this is the first edition to present the text intended by its compiler, who also produced the Latin translation and wrote the single extant manuscript. The introduction demonstrates that same monk who was responsible for this bilingual chronicle also revised MS A (the Parker Chronicle) and an ancestor of MS E (the Peterborough Chronicle) and was a forger of documents: he thus is significant as an early Norman reviser of Anglo-Saxon history. PETER BAKER is Professor of English, University of Virginia.

Perhaps no other manuscript has as much to offer for our understanding of the Chronicle's complicated textual interrelationships, and Baker's careful and precise analysis goes far to illuminate the connections not only between the Old English manuscripts of the the Chronicle but also between the Chronicle and the various Latin chronicles that are themselves related to it. SPECULUM Baker has succeded admirably in making a readable book on a very complex topic.... An excellent edition that should play a major role in our growing comprehension of the evolution of Anglo-Saxon textuality.

Peter S. Baker is Professor of English at the University of Virginia.