Venerable Bede

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Venerable Bede THE COMPLETE WORKS OF VENERABLE BEDE, IN THE ORIGINAL LATIN, COLLATED WITH THE MANUSCRIPTS, AND VARIOUS PRINTED EDITIONS, ACCOMPANIED BY A NEW ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE HISTORICAL WORKS, AI_D A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. BV TIlE }{EV. J. A, GILES, D.(LL., LATE FELLOW OF C.C.C._ OXFORD. VOL. IV. HISTORICAL TRACTS. LONDON: WHITTAKER AND CO., AVI_ MARI& LANI.;. MDCCCXLIII. - 11677 VENERABILIS BEDA OPERA QUiE SUPERSUNT OMNIA, NUNC PRIMUM IN ANGLIA, OPE CODICUM MANUSCRIPTORUM, EDITIONUMQUE OPTIMARUM V,I)II-)IT .l.A. GILES, 1,1..1).. ECCLESIA!: ANGLICANA_ PRESBYTER, XT COLL, CORP, eHR, OXOlq. OLIM 80CIUS. VOL. IV. OPUSCULA HISTORICA. LONDINI : _ENEUNT APUD WHITTAKER ET S(_ It,-, MIXX_'XLIII. THE MISCELLANEOUS WORKS OF YENERA BLE BEDE, IN THE ORIGINAL LATIN, COLLATED WITH THE MANUSCRIPTS, AND VARIOUS PRINTED EDITIONS, ACCOMPANIItD BY A NEW ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE HISTORICAL WORKS, AND A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. Wi" THF. REV .I. h (;II,ES I-).C.I,. L&TE FELLOW OF C.C.C., OXFORD. VOL. IV. HISTORICAL TRACTS. LONDON : ',VHJT'[AKElt ANI) ('(_. A% F M41:II _ I,ANE. MDCCCXLIII. LONDON : WILLIAM MTIg_'RNS_ IIIt|MTIgR_ llLL YARD, TXMPLR BAB, TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGE PERrACE ............................................ iii De Septem Mundi Miraeulis.--The Seven Wonder_ oft/w Work/. In Latin and English ................................ 10 Martyrolngium de Natalitiis Sanctorum ; cum Auctario Florl. 16 Vita Beati Felieis Confessoris.--The Life of Saint Felix. In Latin and English .................................... 174 Vita Sancti Cuthberti._T/w Life of Sa_ Cuthbert. In Latin and English ........................................ 202 Vita Abbatum Wiremuthensinm et Girvensinm.wThe _ of the Abbot_ of Weremouth and Yarrow. In Latin and English. 358 De Locis Sanetis._On the Holy Places. In Latin and English 402 _rarive Lectiones ...................................... 444 PREFACE. THrS volume contains all the other Historical Works, besides the Ecclesiastical History, written by the Vene- rable Bede. They arc as follows : I. DE SEPTEM MUNDI MIRACULIS.---OP THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD. This short tract is found in the folio editions of the works [Bas. i. 474. Col. i. 401--7], from which it has been reprinted. Manuscripts of it are either not in existence,or are scarce. It may well be doubted whe- ther it is a genuine work of Bede ; indeed, the contrary is by far the most probable. It is retained in this edition, on account of the curious information which it contains. II. MARTYROLOGIUM DE NA_ALITIIS SANC"TORUM. This work was first discovered by Henschenius, and published in the Aeta Sanctorum [Pnef. tom. i. Jan. a2 iv PREFACE. p. 40. et Proleg. ad Mens. Mart. tom. ii. § 5 seqq.] from six MSS. Henschenius was aware that the Martyrology which occurs in the folio editions is spurious, because Ado and Usuardus both say that Bede's genuine work was left incomplete to a considerable extent. He was consequently better prepared to recognize a fragment of Bede's real production in Queen Christina's library at Rome; and afterwards he found at Dijon the whole work, with additions by a later hand inserted in the parts which Bede was known not to have filled up. Henschenius at first attributed it to Florus, but after- wards to Bede. Smith published it cure/luctario Flori, in his folio edition, and Eekarthus published a conti- nuation to it from a Wireeburg MS. in Comm. de Rebus Franciae Orientalis et Episcopis Wirceburg. tom. i. p. 829, 830. Wireeb. 1729. See Mabillon, Act. Ben. sec. iii. pt. i. p. 560. and Oudin. Comment. tom. i. p. 1692. The Martyrology published in the folio editions, [Bas. iii. 380--687. Col. iii. 277--360.] and separately Antwerpia_, 1565, is, as has been before stated, spurious, and is taken from Ado. Bede's second Martyrology, in hexameter verse, found in D'Achery's Spicilegium, tom. x. p. 126, ed. nov. ii. 23. [see also Mabillon, Acta Bened. see. iii. i. p. 560. and see. iv. ii. p. 85.] will be found among Bede's poetical works in the first volume of this series. Another Martyrology, forming a sort of almanac, and entitled Ephemeris_ sive Computus Vulgaris, found in the folio editions [Bas. i. 262.--266. Col. i. 191--213J was written by Wandelbertus Prumiensis. See Oudin. Comment. tom. i. p. 1688. PREFACE. V Two other tracts, entitled Liber Annalis, and form- ing a kind of MartyrologT, are found in Martene and Durand's Collectio Veterum Scriptorum, vol. vi. ; but they are of no importance, and the editors themselves allow that very little of them can claim to be the pro- duction of Bede. III. VITA BEATI FELICIS CONFESSORIS,_TIIE LIFE OF THE HOLY ST, FELIX. The Saint and Confessor Felix was a priest of the Church of Nola in the fiRh century. His llfe was first composed by Paullinus in verse, which was turned by Bede into the prose narrative now before us. The work is found in the folio editions [Bas. iii. 255--262. Col. ili. 185--190] and in the Aeta Sanctorum ad Jan. 14, tom. i. p. 94_3, ed. Ant. 164.3. It is inserted in Smith's edition, corrected from a careful revision of the two previous editions, but Smith was unable to dis- cover any MS. copies of it. In the Harleian Collection at the British Museum is a splendid Passionale, in three very large volumes, Nos. 2800--2802, of the thirteenth century, in which occurs this life of Felix. It is not found in Stevenson's edition, which relates to English history only. It is here printed from an ac- curate collation of the texts of Smith, of the Basil edition, and the Harleian Passionale. The variations are given at the end of the volume. vi PREFACE. IV. VITA SANCTI CUTHBERTI._THE LIFE OF ST. CUTHBERT. This is in substance the same as the metrical legend De Miraculis Sancti Cuthberti, which will be given among the poetical remains of Bede in the first volume. It is, however, much more valuable than the other. It is dedicated to Eadfrid, bishop of Lindisfarne, or Holy Island, who died A.D. 721. It is found in the folio editions, [Bas. iii. 209---254. Col. iii. 152--185.] and in Mabillon's Aeta Bened. sec. ii. Smith gives a text based on five MSS. viz. a Benedictine, Harleian, two in the Bodleian, and one in the possession of a friend. Stevenson used Smith's edition, together with two MSS. _Harl. 1117, fol. 2, and Cotton. Vitel. A. xix.] For the present edition a MS. in the Arundel Collection [222] has been collated with the editions of Smith and Stevenson. V. VITA ABBATUM WIREMUTHENSIUM ET GIRVEN- 8IUM.--TIIE LIVES OF THE ABBOTS OF WERE- MOUTH AND _ARROW. This very interesting memoir of the abbots of the united monasteries of Weremouth and Jarrow is men- tioned by William of Malmesbury, [Gest. R. A. i. 3.] but is not found in either of the folio editions of the works. It was first published by Ware, Dublin, 8vo, 1664, from a MS. in the Cottonian Library.. Wharton PREFACK. vii afterwards republished it from the same MS. Lond. 4to, 1693. Smith included it in his folio edition of Bede's Historical Works, using three MSS., one in the Durham Library, another in the library of Pembroke College, Cambridge, and a third in the library of Merton Col- lege, Oxford. Lastly, Stevenson, in his recent edition of Bede's works connected with English history, used the text of Smith, and collated it with the Harleian MS. and the Durham MS. b. ii. 35. For the present edition the Burney MS. [310] has been collated with the preceding. _]. LIBELLU8 DE 81TU HIERUSALEM, SIVE DE LOCI8 8ANCTIS. -- OF THE 8ITUATION OF JERUSALEM, on oF THE HoLY PLACES. This curious tract is not mentioned in Bede's index to his own writings ; but as he quotes it in his Eccle- siastical History, Iv. 17, 18.] it evidently must have been written before that index was drawn up. It is found in the folio editions, [Bas. ili. 487 _98. Col. ili. 363--370.] in that of Smith, who used two MSS., one in the Bodleian, the other in the library of C. C. C. Oxford, and in Mabillon's Aeta Bened. sec. iii. pt. il. p. 502. It is reprinted from the edition of Smith, and the collations of a MS. in the King's Library at Paris will be given hereafter in an Appendix. The miraculous parts of this narrative have given occasion to critics of censuring the credulity of the author; but it will be remembered that Bedc is no more than the narrator of what he found related o.o vm PREFACE. as a fact by another. See Campbell's Memoir in Bio- graphia Britann. The work professes to be an epitome of a larger treatise on the same subject, which Adam- nan, its author, compiled from the narrative of Arculph, a French bishop, and presented to Alfrid, king of Northumberland, to whose court he came about the year 701. These are all the existing historical works of Bede, except his Chronicle, which in this edition will be restored to its proper place as part of De Temporum Ratione, among the scientific works. The Life of Anastasius is no longer extant. In the folio editions of Bede's Works are found several other lives, which were not written by him. The life of St. Vedast was written by Alcuin ; those of Colum- banus, Eustathius, Bertolfus, Burgundofara or Fara, and Attalus, by Jonas ; that of Patricius, by Probus ; and that of Arnoldus, by Paulus Diaconus. BEDA_ VENERABILIS ]_ DE SEPTEM MUNDI MIRACULIS. super quatuor caneros vitreos per passus viginti sub marl fundata est.
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