LUP_Kendal_Bede_00_Prelims
Translated Texts for Historians 300–800 AD is the time of late antiquity and the early middle ages: the transformation of the classical world, the beginnings of Europe and of Islam, and the evolution of Byzantium. TTH makes available sources translated from Greek, Latin, Syriac, Coptic, Arabic, Georgian, Gothic and Armenian.
Each volume provides an expert scholarly translation, with an introduction setting texts and authors in context, and with notes on content, interpretation and debates.
Editorial Committee Sebastian Brock, Oriental Institute, University of Oxford Averil Cameron, Keble College, Oxford Marios Costambeys, University of Liverpool
Mary Cunningham, University of Nottingham Carlotta Dionisotti, King's College, London
Peter Heather, King's College, London Robert Hoyland, University of St Andrews William E. Klingshirn, The Catholic University of America
Michael Lapidge, Clare College, Cambridge John Matthews, Yale University Neil McLynn, Corpus Christi College, Oxford
Richard Price, Heythrop College, University of London Claudia Rapp, University of California, Los Angeles
Raymond Van Dam, University of Michigan Michael Whitby, University of Warwick Ian Wood, University of Leeds General Editors Gillian Clark, University of Bristol Mark Humphries, Swansea University Mary Whitby, University of Oxford
A full list of published titles in the Translated Texts for Historians series is available on request. The most recently published are shown below.
Bede: On Ezra and Nehemiah Translated with an introduction and notes by SCOTT DEGREGORIO
Volume 47: 304pp, 2006, ISBN 978-1-84631-001-0 Bede: On Genesis Translated with introduction and notes by CALVIN B. KENDALL
Volume 48: 371pp., 2008, ISBN 978-1-84631-088-1 Nemesius: On the Nature of Man Translated with introduction and notes by R. W. SHARPLES and P. J. VAN DER EIJK
Volume 49: 283pp., 2008, ISBN 978-1-84631-132-1 Sources for the History of the School of Nisibis
Translated with introduction and notes by ADAM H. BECKER Volume 50: 217pp., 2008, ISBN 978-1-84631-161-1
Acts of the Council of Constantinople of 553: with related texts on the Three Chapters Controversy
Translated with an introduction and notes by Richard Price Volume 51, 2 vols, 384pp + 360pp, 2009, ISBN 9781846311789
Three Political Voices from the Age of Justinian: Agapetus – Advice to the Emperor,
Dialogue on Political Science, Paul the Silentiary – Description of Hagia Sophia
Translated with notes and an introduction by PETER N. BELL Volume 52: 249pp, ISBN 978-1-84631-209-0
History and Hagiography from the Late Antique Sinai DANIEL F. CANER, with contributions by SEBASTIAN BROCK, RICHARD M. PRICE and KEVIN VAN BLADEL Volume 53: 346pp, ISBN 978-1-84631-216-8
Orosius: Seven Books of History against the Pagans Translated with introduction and notes by A. T. FEAR
Volume 54: 456pp., 2010; ISBN 978-1-84631-473-5 cased, 978-1-84631-239-7 limp The Chronicle of Pseudo-Zachariah Rhetor: Church and War in Late Antiquity
Translated by GEOFFREY GREATREX, with ROBERT PHENIX and CORNELIA HORN; introductory material by SEBASTIAN BROCK and WITOLD WITAKOWSKI
Volume 55: forthcoming 2010; ISBN 978-1-84631-493-3 cased, 978-1-84631-494-0 limp
For full details of Translated Texts for Historians, including prices and ordering information, please write to the following:
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Translated Texts for Historians Volume 56 Bede On the Nature of Things and On Times Translated with introduction, notes and commentary by
CALVIN B. KENDALL
and FAITH WALLIS Liverpool University Press
First published 2010 Liverpool University Press 4 Cambridge Street Liverpool, L69 7ZU Copyright © 2010 Calvin B. Kendall and Faith Wallis
The authors' rights have been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A British Library CIP Record is available.
ISBN 978-1-84631-495-7 cased 978-1-84631-496-4 limp Set in Times by Koinonia, Manchester Printed in the European Union by Bell & Bain Ltd, Glasgow
To our best beloveds, Eleanor Kendall and Kendall Wallis, who teach us what is most important about the nature of things, and who share all our times.
contents Illustrations x Acknowledgements xi Abbreviations xiii Introduction Date and Purpose of On the Nature of Things (ONT) and On Times (OT) 1
Structure and Content of ONT and OT
Unity of Conception of ONT and OT
The Place of ONT and OT in Bede's Thought
Bede's Template: Isidore of Seville's De natura rerum (DNR)
Bede's Transformation of Isidore's DNR
Bede's Attitude Toward Isidore
The Easter Controversy and the Pedagogy of Computus
The Christian World-Chronicle
Bede's Science: Continuities and New Directions
The Transmission of ONT and OT
The Reception of ONT and OT: Glosses and Excerpts
Principles Governing this Translation
Inventory of Manuscripts and Editions of Bede's ONT and OT
Bede: On the Nature of Things A Poem of Bede the Priest
The Chapters of On the Nature of Things
1. The Fourfold Work of God
2. The Formation of the World
3. What the World Is
4. The Elements
5. The Firmament
6. The Varied Height of Heaven
7. Upper Heaven
8. The Heavenly Waters
viii CONTENTS 9. The Five Circles of the World
10. The Regions of the World
11. The Stars
12. The Course of the Planets
13. Their Order
14. Their Orbits
15. Why Their Colours Change
16. The Circle of the Zodiac
17. The Twelve Signs
18. The Milky Way
19. The Course and Size of the Sun
20. The Nature and Place of the Moon
21. Method for Determining the Course of the Moon through the
Signs of the Zodiac
22. The Eclipse of the Sun and the Moon
23. Where there Is No Eclipse and Why
24. Comets
25. The Air
26. The Winds
27. The Order of the Winds
28. Thunder
29. Lightning
30. Where Lightning Is Not and Why
31. The Rainbow
32. Clouds
33. Rains
34. Hail
35. Snow
36. Signs of Storms or Fair Weather
37. Pestilence
38. On the Dual Nature of the Waters
39. The Ocean's Tide
40. Why the Sea Does Not Grow in Size
41. Why It Is Bitter
42. The Red Sea
43. The Nile
44. That the Earth Is Bound by Waters
45. The Position of the Earth
46. That the Earth Is Like a Globe
ix CONTENTS 47. The Circles of the Earth
48. More on the Same Subject: the Art of Using Sundials
49. Earthquake
50. The Fire of Mount Etna
51. The Division of the Earth
Bede: On Times The Chapters of On Times
1. Moments and Hours
2. The Day
3. The Night
4. The Week
5. The Month
6. The Months of the Romans
7. Solstice and Equinox
8. The Seasons
9. Years
10. The Leap-Year Day
11. The Nineteen-Year Cycle
12. The 'Leap of the Moon'
13. The Contents of the Paschal Cycle
14. The Formulas for the Headings of the Paschal Table
15. The Sacrament of the Easter Season
16. The Ages of the World
17. The Sequence and Order of Times
18. The Second Age
19. The Third Age
20. The Fourth Age
21. The Fifth Age
22. The Sixth Age
Commentaries Commentary: On the Nature of Things
Commentary: On Times
Appendices Appendix 1: Bede: A Hymn on the Work of the First Six Days and
the Six Ages of the World
x CONTENTS Appendix 2: An Excursus on Bede's Mathematical Reasoning
Appendix 3: Bede's Calculation of Tidal Periods and the Purported
'Immaturity' of On the Nature of Things
Appendix 4: Bede and Lucretius
Select Bibliography
Index of Sources and Parallels
General Index
ILLUSTRATIONS
Schematic Model of Bede's Cosmos
Horologium
acknowledgements At the conclusion of a long and happy collaboration, it is our special pleasure and privilege to acknowledge our debt to Dr Mary Whitby, who had the wit to bring us together in the first place, and then to keep us on track with counsel and encouragement until the moment when the project came into its final fruition. Collaboration can take different forms and mean different things. It may not be out of place to describe ours. Each of us had, independently and without knowing of the other's efforts, drafted translations of Bede's De natura rerum and De temporibus and begun the work of annotation and commentary, when Mary, learning of these parallel projects, put us in touch and proposed collaboration. Then began an intense period of joint scholarly effort, extending over several years during which we exchanged hundreds of e-mails and met from time to time for 'summit conferences', as we liked to think of them, at Kalamazoo, Michigan, in the Green Mountains of Vermont and in the lovely city of Montreal. Our method was simple: we stitched together our preliminary versions into a single electronic masterfile, and then exchanged the file, turn and turn about, over and over again, accepting or rejecting each other's work, word by word, line by line, all the while adding new materials, until we reached complete agreement. As we look back at it, it has proved to be a seamless collaboration, and we are jointly responsible for the whole, both for whatever value it may possess and, of course, for errors of fact and judgement that remain. We are grateful to Prof George H. Brown and Dr Joshua Westgard for sharing unpublished materials and making factual corrections to our inventory of manuscripts.
Prof Michael Lapidge reviewed the entire manuscript with meticulous care, suggesting changes, saving us from numerous blunders and calling our attention to unjustly neglected resources. We wish also to acknowledge the generous assistance of Dr Kate Harris, Curator, Longleat Historical Collections, in providing information on the Longleat manuscript of Bede's De natura rerum. Alison Welsby, the TTH series commissioning editor, deftly handled a delicate problem that threatened to delay publication. Our greatest debt is to our spouses, who have cheerfully tolerated our Bedan obsessions
xii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
over many years, and who surrounded us with warmth and enlivened our evenings with good fellowship in the course of our various 'summit conferences'.
ABBREVIATIONS
Ambrose, Hex.
Ambrose, Hexaemeron ANF The Ante-Nicene Fathers ASE Anglo-Saxon England Augustine, DCD Augustine, De ciuitate Dei
––– DGAL De Genesi ad litteram Bede, DNR Bede, De natura rerum ––– DT De temporibus ––– DTR De temporum ratione ––– EH Ecclesiastical History of the English People
––– In Gen.
In Genesim ––– ONT On the Nature of Things [= De natura rerum] ––– OT On Times [= De temporibus] BHW Bede and his World, ed. Lapidge Blaise Blaise, Dictionnaire latin-français des auteurs chrétiens
BOH Venerabilis Baedae Opera Historica, ed. Plummer BOT Bedae opera de temporibus, ed. Jones CCSL Corpus Christianorum series latina Colgrave and Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People,
Mynors ed. Colgrave and Mynors CSASE Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England CSEL Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum
Fontaine, Traité Isidore, DNR: Traité de la nature, ed. Fontaine Gameson, Gameson, The Manuscripts of Early Norman England
Manuscripts Gneuss, Handlist Gneuss, Handlist of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts HMML Hill Museum and Manuscript Library, manuscript database
Isidore, DNR Isidore, De natura rerum ––– Etym.
Etymologiae Ps.-Isidore, DOC Pseudo-Isidore, Liber de ordine creaturarum Jerome, Chron.
Jerome, Chronicon Jones, 'MSS of Jones, 'Manuscripts of Bede's De Natura Rerum'
Bede's DNR'
––– BP Bedae Pseudepigrapha
xiv
ABBREVIATIONS
Jordanus Jordanus: An International Catalogue of Mediaeval Scientific Manuscripts Josephus, Ant.
Josephus, Historiae antiquitatis iudaicae Krusch, 1 Krusch, Studien zur christlich-mittelalterlichen Chronologie:
Der 84-jährige Ostercyclus Krusch, 2 Krusch, Studien zur christlich-mittelalterlichen Chronologie:
Die Entstehung unserer heutigen Zeitrechnung LCL Loeb Classical Library MGH Monumenta Germaniae Historica MGH: AA MGH: Auctores Antiquissimi Mommsen, CM 3 Mommsen, Chronica minora 3 (MGH: AA 13), 223–354
Niermeyer Niermeyer, Mediae latinitatis lexicon minus OLD Oxford Latin Dictionary PL Patrologiae cursus completus, series latina
Pliny, NH Pliny, Naturalis historia Rep. Chron.
Repertorium Chronicarum Souter Souter, A Glossary of Later Latin to 600 AD Stevens, App. 1
Stevens, 'Bede's Scientific Achievement', Appendix I TTH Translated Texts for Historians