Tatwine

Tatwine ( – 30 July 734) was the tenth Archbishop of Canterbury from 731 to 734. Prior to becoming archbishop, he was a monk and abbot of a Benedictine monastery. Besides his ecclesiastical career, Tatwine was a writer, and riddles he composed survive. Another work he composed was on the grammar of the Latin language, which was aimed at advanced students of that language. He was subsequently considered a saint.

Biography

Tatwine was a Mercian by birth. His epigraph at Canterbury stated that when he died he was in old age, so perhaps he was born around 670. He became a monk at the monastery at Breedon-on-the-Hill in the present-day County of Leicestershire,Brooks ''Early History of the Church of Canterbury'' p. 80Yorke ''Kings and Kingdoms'' p. 31 and then abbot of that house.Stenton ''Anglo-Saxon England'' p. 183 Through the influence of King Æthelbald he was appointed as Archbishop of Canterbury in 731 and was consecrated on 10 June 731.Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 213Kirby ''Earliest English Kings'' p. 113 He was one of a number of Mercians who were appointed to Canterbury during the 730s and 740s.Williams ''Kingship and Government'' p. 24 Apart from his consecration of the Bishops of Lindsey and Selsey in 733, Tatwine's period as archbishop appears to have been uneventful. He died in office on 30 July 734. Later considered a saint, his feast day is 30 July.Walsh ''New Dictionary of Saints'' p. 571

Writings

Bede's commentary on Tatwine calls him a "" (a man notable for his prudence, devotion and learning). These qualities were displayed in the two surviving manuscripts of his riddles and four of his .Law "Transmission" ''Revue d'Histoire des Textes'' p. 281

''Ars Gramattica Tatuini''

The is one of only two surviving eighth-century Latin grammars from England. The grammar is a reworking of Donatus's with the addition of information drawn from other grammarians, such as Priscian and Consentius. It was not designed for a newcomer to the Latin language, but rather for more advanced students.Brooks ''Early History of the Church of Canterbury'' pp. 98–99 It covers the eight parts of speech through illustrations drawn from classical scholars, although not directly but through other grammatical works. There are also some examples drawn from the Psalms. The work was completed before Tatwine became archbishop, and was used not only in England but also on the Continent.Blair ''World of Bede'' pp. 246–247

Riddles

It is almost certain that Tatwine was inspired to develop the culture of riddle-writing in early medieval England because he had read the by the West-Saxon scholar Aldhelm (d. 709), which combined studies of Latin grammar and metre with the presentation of one hundred hexametrical riddles. Frederick Tupper believed that Aldhelm's influence was minimal, but subsequent scholars have argued that Tatwine's riddles owed a substantial debt to those of Aldhelm.

Tatwine's riddles deal with such diverse topics as philosophy and charity, the five senses and the alphabet, and a book, and a pen,Lapidge "Tatwine" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' yet, according to Mercedes Salvador-Bello, these riddles are placed in a carefully structured sequence: 1–3 and 21–26 on theology (e.g. 2, faith, hope, and charity), 4–14 on objects associated with ecclesiastical life (e.g. 7, a bell), 15–20 on wonders and monsters (e.g. 16, prepositions with two cases), 27–39 on tools and related natural phenomena (e.g. 28, an anvil, and 33, fire), with a final piece on the sun's rays.

Tatwine's riddles survive in two manuscripts: the early 11th-century London, British Library, Royal 12.Cxxiii (fols. 121v–7r) and the mid-11th-century Cambridge, University Library, Gg.5.35 (fols. 374v–77v). In both manuscripts, they are written alongside the riddles of Eusebius: it seems clear that Eusebius (whose identity is uncertain) added sixty riddles to Tatwine's forty to take the collection up to one hundred.

Tatwine gives a sign in one of the riddles of the growing acceptance among scholars in the Christian west of the legitimacy of philosophy: "" (Of Philosophy: happy is he who can know my laws).Rory Naismith, Antiquity, Authority, and Religion in the Epitomae and Epistolae of Virgilius Maro Grammaticus' Peritia v.20 (2008) 59, at 66. The riddles are formed in acrostics.Lapidge "Tatwine" ''Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England''

Example

An example of Tatwine's work is enigma 11, on the needle:'Aenigmata Tatvini', ed. by Fr. Glorie, trans. by Erika von Erhardt-Seebold, in ''Tatuini omnia opera, Variae collectiones aenigmatum merovingicae aetatis, Anonymus de dubiis nominibus'', Corpus christianorum: series latina, 133-133a, 2 vols (Turnholt: Brepols, 1968)
I
165–208.

List

Tatwine's riddles are on the following topics.

Editions and translations

* 'Aenigmata Tatvini', ed. by Fr. Glorie, trans. by Erika von Erhardt-Seebold, in ''Tatuini omnia opera, Variae collectiones aenigmatum merovingicae aetatis, Anonymus de dubiis nominibus'', Corpus christianorum: series latina, 133-133a, 2 vols (Turnholt: Brepols, 1968)
I
165–208.

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Further reading

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Tatwine
670s births
734 deaths
8th-century archbishops
8th-century English writers
8th-century Latin writers
Archbishops of Canterbury
Grammarians of Latin
Linguists from England
Medieval linguists
Year of birth uncertain
Riddles
Latin poetry