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Nowell Codex
The Nowell Codex is the second of two manuscripts comprising the bound volume Cotton MS Vitellius A XV, one of the four major Old English literature#Extant manuscripts, Old English poetic manuscripts. It is most famous as the manuscript containing the unique copy of the epic poem ''Beowulf''. In addition to this, it contains first a fragment of ''The Life of Saint Christopher'', then the more complete texts ''Wonders of the East'' and ''Epistola Alexandri ad Aristotelem, Letter of Alexander to Aristotle'', and, after ''Beowulf'', Judith (poem), a poetic translation of ''Judith''. Due to the fame of ''Beowulf'', the Nowell Codex is also sometimes known simply as the ''Beowulf'' manuscript. The manuscript is located within the British Library with the rest of the Cotton library, Cotton collection. Name and date The current codex is a composite of at least two manuscripts. The main division is into two totally distinct books which were apparently not bound together until the 17th ce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liber Monstrorum
The ''Liber Monstrorum'' (or ''Liber monstrorum de diversis generibus'') is a late seventh-or early eighth-century Anglo-Latin catalogue of marvellous creatures, which may be connected with the Anglo-Saxon scholar Aldhelm. It is transmitted in several manuscripts from the ninth and tenth centuries, but is often studied in connection with the better-known text ''Beowulf'', since the ''Liber'' also mentions King Hygelac of the Geats and that he was renowned for his large size. Some scholars argue that the ''Beowulf''-poet was in fact inspired by the ''Liber Monstrorum''.{{cite journal, first=Giovanni, last=Princi Braccini, title=Tra folclore germanico e latinita insulare. Presenze del ''Liber Monstrorum'' e della ''Cosmographia'' dello Pseudo-Etico nel ''Beowulf'' e nel cod. Nowell, journal=Studi Medievali, volume=series 3 25, year=1984, pages=681–720 The book contains extraordinary people, such as Hygelac; some clearly historical reports of actual peoples, such as the Ethiopians; an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Exeter Book
The Exeter Book, also known as the Codex Exoniensis or Exeter Cathedral Library MS 3501, is a large codex of Old English poetry, believed to have been produced in the late tenth century AD. It is one of the four major manuscripts of Old English poetry, along with the Vercelli Book in the chapter library of Vercelli Cathedral, Italy, the Nowell Codex in the British Library, and the Junius manuscript in the Bodleian Library in Oxford. The Exeter Book was given to what is now the Exeter Cathedral library by Leofric, the first bishop of Exeter, in 1072. It is believed to have originally contained 130 or 131 leaves, of which the first 7 or 8 have been replaced with other leaves; the original first 8 leaves are lost. The Exeter Book is the largest and perhaps oldest known manuscript of Old English literature, containing about a sixth of the Old English poetry that has survived. In 2016 UNESCO recognized the book as "the foundation volume of English literature, one of the wo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Junius Manuscript
The Junius manuscript is one of the four major codices of Old English literature. Written in the 10th century, it contains poetry dealing with Biblical subjects in Old English, the vernacular language of Anglo-Saxon England. Modern editors have determined that the manuscript is made of four poems, to which they have given the titles ''Genesis'', ''Exodus'', ''Daniel'', and ''Christ and Satan''. The identity of their author is unknown. For a long time, scholars believed them to be the work of Cædmon, accordingly calling the book the Cædmon manuscript. This theory has been discarded due to the significant differences between the poems. The manuscript owes its current designation to the Anglo-Dutch scholar Franciscus Junius, who was the first to edit its contents and who bequeathed it to Oxford University. It is kept in the Bodleian Library under shelfmark MS Junius 11. Name and date The codex now referred to as the "Junius manuscript" was formerly called the "Cædmon manuscr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beowulf Manuscript
''Beowulf'' (; ) is an Old English poem, an epic in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines. It is one of the most important and most often translated works of Old English literature. The date of composition is a matter of contention among scholars; the only certain dating is for the manuscript, which was produced between 975 and 1025 AD. Scholars call the anonymous author the "''Beowulf'' poet". The story is set in pagan Scandinavia in the 5th and 6th centuries. Beowulf, a hero of the Geats, comes to the aid of Hrothgar, the king of the Danes, whose mead hall Heorot has been under attack by the monster Grendel for twelve years. After Beowulf slays him, Grendel's mother takes revenge and is in turn defeated. Victorious, Beowulf goes home to Geatland and becomes king of the Geats. Fifty years later, Beowulf defeats a dragon, but is mortally wounded in the battle. After his death, his attendants cremate his body and erect a barrow ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Book Of Judith
The Book of Judith is a deuterocanonical book included in the Septuagint and the Catholic Church, Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Christian Old Testament of the Bible but Development of the Hebrew Bible canon, excluded from the Hebrew canon and assigned by Protestants to the Biblical apocrypha, apocrypha. It tells of a Judaism, Jewish widow, Judith, who uses her beauty and charm to kill an Neo-Assyrian Empire, Assyrian general who has besieged her city, Bethulia. With this act, she saves nearby Jerusalem from total destruction. The name Judith (), meaning "praised" or "Jewess", is the feminine form of Judah (son of Jacob), Judah. The surviving manuscripts of Greek translations appear to contain several historical anachronisms, which is why some Protestant scholars now consider the book ahistorical. Instead, the book is classified as a parable, Theological fiction, theological novel, or even the first Historical fiction#Historical novel, historical novel. The Cat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saint Christopher
Saint Christopher (, , ; ) is venerated by several Christian denominations. According to these traditions, he was a martyr killed in the reign of the 3rd-century Roman Empire, Roman emperor Decius (), or alternatively under the emperor Maximinus Daia (). Churches and monasteries were named after him by the 7th century. There is no evidence for the historicity of the saint.Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Saint Christopher" Encyclopedia Britannica, 25 July 2024, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Christopher. Accessed 25 October 2024. The most famous legend connected to the saint recounts that after converting to Christianity, he devoted his life to carrying travelers across a river. One day he carried an unknown young boy across a river after which the boy reve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saint Quentin
Quentin (; died 287 AD) also known as Quentin of Amiens, was an early Christian saint. Hagiography Martyrdom The legend of his life has him as a Roman citizen who was martyred in Gaul. He is said to have been the son of a man named Zeno, who had senatorial rank. Filled with apostolic zeal, Quentin travelled to Gaul as a missionary with Lucian, who was later martyred at Beauvais, and others (the martyrs Victoricus and Fuscian are said to have been Quentin's followers). Quentin settled at Amiens and performed many miracles there. Because of his preaching, he was imprisoned by the prefect Rictiovarus, who had travelled to Amiens from Trier. Quentin was manacled, tortured repeatedly, but refused to abjure his faith. The prefect left Amiens to go to Reims, the capital of ''Gallia Belgica'', where he wanted Quentin judged. But, on the way, in a town named ''Augusta Veromanduorum'' (now Saint-Quentin, Aisne), Rictiovarus decided to interrupt his journey and pass sentence: Quentin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Solomon And Saturn
''Solomon and Saturn'' is the generic name given to four Old English works, which present a dialogue of riddles between Solomon, the king of Israel, and Saturn, identified in two of the poems as a prince of the Chaldeans. On account of earlier editorial tendencies, the two poetical works, ''Solomon and Saturn I'' and ''Solomon and Saturn II'', have often been read as a single, continuous poem. They are considered to be among the most enigmatic and difficult poems in the Old English corpus. The ''Prose Solomon and Saturn'' The ''Prose Solomon and Saturn'' in the Nowell Codex (the ''Beowulf'' manuscript) is a question-and-answer text dealing chiefly with issues of biblical or Christian lore. It has many similarities to a later Old English prose dialogue, '' Adrian and Ritheus'' and, later still, the Middle English '' Master of Oxford's Catechism''. The ''Prose Solomon and Saturn'' has as one of its riddles: "Who invented letters? Mercurius the giant." The Anglo-Saxons routinely ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gospel Of Nicodemus
The Gospel of Nicodemus, also known as the Acts of Pilate (; ), is an apocryphal gospel purporting to be derived from an original work written by Nicodemus, who appears in the Gospel of John as an acquaintance of Jesus. The title "Gospel of Nicodemus" is medieval in origin. The dates of its accreted sections are uncertain, but the work in its existing form is thought to date to around the 4th or 5th century AD. The author was probably a Hellenistic Jew who converted to Christianity, or, as Constantin von Tischendorf and Maury conclude, a Christian imbued with Judaic and Gnostic beliefs. History and authenticity The oldest sections of the book appear first in Greek. The text contains multiple parts, which are uneven in style and would seem to be by different authors. A prologue found in some versions asserts that the text is a translation into Greek of eyewitness accounts found in the praetorium at Jerusalem. The question of the original language is debated. Beyond Greek, the v ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Augustine Of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo ( , ; ; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430) was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings deeply influenced the development of Western philosophy and Western Christianity, and he is viewed as one of the most important Church Fathers of the Latin Church in the Patristic Period. His many important works include '' The City of God'', '' On Christian Doctrine'', and '' Confessions''. According to his contemporary, Jerome of Stridon, Augustine "established anew the ancient Faith". In his youth he was drawn to the Manichaean faith, and later to the Hellenistic philosophy of Neoplatonism. After his conversion to Christianity and baptism in 386, Augustine developed his own approach to philosophy and theology, accommodating a variety of methods and perspectives. Believing the grace of Christ was indispensable to human freedom, he helped formulate the doctrine of original sin and m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
