Anglo-Saxon Prognostics: Texts and Studies

FAIN: FA-53064-07

Roy Liuzza
University of Tennessee, Knoxville (Knoxville, TN 37916-3801)

I am preparing a monograph-length study and edition of the corpus of Anglo-Saxon prognostics in Latin and Old English, a diverse group of over fifty texts and calendars forecasting the outcome of everyday events such as birth, sickness, dreams, weather and harvest. These texts are found in many manuscripts, but have received surprisingly little scholarly attention; they have never been edited in one volume, and never studied in the context of the monastic culture in which they flourished. A study of the prognostics offers fascinating insights into monastic life, medicine, pastoral care, the transformations of classical learning in the Middle Ages, and the complex interconnections between orthodox religion, popular belief, science and magic.

Associated Products

Anglo-Saxon prognostics : an edition and translation of texts from London, British Library, MS Cotton Tiberius A.iii (Book)
Title: Anglo-Saxon prognostics : an edition and translation of texts from London, British Library, MS Cotton Tiberius A.iii
Author: R. M. Liuzza
Abstract: Medieval prognostic texts - a survival from the classical world - are the ancestors of modern almanacs; a means of predicting future events, they offer guidance on matters of everyday life, such as illness, childbirth, weather, agriculture, and the interpretation of dreams. They give fascinating insights into monastic life, medicine, pastoral care, the transformations of classical learning in the middle ages, and the complex interconnections between orthodox religion, popular belief, science and magic. This volume provides the first full critical edition, with a facing-page translation, of a diverse and peculiar group of prognostic guides and calendars, in Latin and Old English, found in an eleventh-century manuscript from Christ Church, Canterbury; they are collated with related versions in both Anglo-Saxon and continental manuscripts. A lengthy introduction and commentary examine the transmission and translation of these texts, and shed light on their origins and uses in late Anglo-Saxon monastic culture.
Year: 2011
Primary URL: http://www.worldcat.org/isbn/9781843842552
Primary URL Description: Worldcat Catalogue description
Secondary URL: http://www.boydellandbrewer.com/store/viewitem.asp?idproduct=13463
Secondary URL Description: Publisher's website
Publisher: Boydell Press
Type: Scholarly Edition
ISBN: 9781843842552

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