Hebrew in England Before and After the Norman Conquest

FAIN: FT-270735-20

Damian Fleming
Indiana University, Purdue University at Fort Wayne (Fort Wayne, IN 46805-1445)

Writing the final chapter for a book on the use of the Hebrew language in early medieval England.

Manuscript materials that reveal early medieval Christian interest in the Hebrew language have never been researched or published before, outside of my brief preliminary studies. Standard intellectual and literary histories suggest that Christians only became interested in studying Hebrew in the thirteenth century and that study only flourished during the Reformation. My book, Reading Hebrew in Early Medieval England, will reconfigure how we think about Christian knowledge and engagement with the Hebrew language in the early Middle Ages, by addressing the intellectual history, material sources, uses, and implications of “Christian Hebrew” in early medieval England (c. 600-1150). I will use the Summer Stipend period to write the final and most challenging chapter: “Hebrew Across the Conquest: The Eadwine Psalter, Durham Jerome, and Stowe 57.”