Launching English Intellectual History: The Construction of the First English Encyclopedia at Canterbury in the 7th Century
FAIN: FB-56779-13
David William Porter
Southern University and A & M College (Baton Rouge, LA 70813-0001)
The project studies a set of vocabularies recently discovered to be the earliest school text (and first long text) in the English language. There are three focuses: the vocabularies as a medium of Classical learning to Old English, the educational influence of vocabularies at the 7th-century School of Canterbury, and the influence of the vocabularies on the writings of the first generation of Anglo-Saxon authors. The final product: a book-length study revolutionizing knowledge of the beginnings of written English.