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Bede the grammarian and the scope of grammatical studies in eighth-century Northumbria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Martin Irvine
Martin Irvine
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Wayne State University
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Extract

The last works which Bede lists in the catalogue of writings at the end of the Historia Ecclesiastica are his grammatical treatises, and he groups them together, indicating a unity of genre or function:

Librum de ofthographia alphabeti ordine distinctum.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anglo-Saxon England , Volume 15 , December 1986 , pp. 15 - 44
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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References

1 Historia Ecclesiastica v.24 (ed. Colgrave, Bertram and Mynors, R. A. B., Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People (Oxford, 1969), p. 570).Google Scholar

2 Laistner, M. L. W., Thought and Letters in Western Europe, A.D. 500 to 900, 2nd ed. (Ithaca, NY, 1957), p. 157Google Scholar; see also Laistner, M. L. W. and King, H. H., A Hand-List of Bede Manuscripts (Ithaca, NY, 1943), pp. 131–8Google Scholar. The studies by Roger, Maurice, L'Enseignement des lettres classiques d' Ausone à Alcuin (Paris, 1905; repr. Hildesheim, 1968), pp. 202–393Google Scholar, and Riché, Pierre, Education and Culture in the Barbarian West, trans. Contreni, John (Columbia, SC, 1976), pp. 305–99Google Scholar, remain good general guides to Anglo-Saxon education and literary studies but they lack close examinations of Bede's texts. Robert Palmer's study of Bede's De arte metrica, ‘Bede as Textbook Writer: A Study of his De arte metrica’, Speculum 34 (1959), 573–84, is useful for pointing out some of Bede's criteria for selecting various auctoritates. See also Charles W. Jones's preface to the edition of Bede's grammatical works in Charles Jones, W. and Kendall, C. B., ed., Bedae Venerabilis Opera, Pars I, Opera Didascalica, Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 123a (Turnhout, 1975), pp. v–xiGoogle Scholar, and King, Margot H., ‘Grammatica Mystica: A Study of Bede's Grammatical Curriculum’, in Saints, Scholars, and Heroes: Studies in Medieval Culture in Honor of Charles W. Jones, ed. King, Margot H. and Stevens, Wesley M. (Collegeville, Minn., 1979) 1, 145–59.Google Scholar

3 Law, Vivien, The Insular Latin Grammarians (Woodbridge, 1982), pp. xiii–xiv.Google Scholar

4 See Carlotta Dionisotti, ‘On Bede, Grammars, and Greek,’ RB 92 (198 2), 111–41, and Schindel, Ulrich, ‘Die Quellen von Bedas Figurenlehre’, Classica et Mediaevalia 29 (1972), 169–86.Google Scholar

5 The best guide to the sources and manuscripts of treatises known to or written by Insular scholars, in the area of elementary grammar, is Law, The Insular Latin Grammarians: see also Law, , ‘Notes on the Dating and Attribution of Anonymous Latin Grammars of the Early Middle Ages’, Peritia 1 (1982), 250–67CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and ‘The Study of Latin Grammar in Eighth-Century Southumbria’, ASE 12 (1983), 43–71. Löfstedt, Bengt, Der Hibernolateinischer Grammatiker Malsachanus (Uppsala, 1965)Google Scholar, contains a valuable introduction. See also the important studies by Holtz, Louis, ‘Sur trois commentaires irlandais de l'Art majeur de Donat au IXe siècle’, Revue d'histoire des textes 2 (1972), 45–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar, ‘Edition et tradition des manuels grammaticaux antiques et médiévaux’, Revue des études latins 52 (1974), 75–89, ‘Le Parisinus latinus 7530, synthèse cassinienne des arts libéraux’, SM 16 (1975), 97–152, ‘La typologie des manuscrits grammaticaux latins’, Revue d'histoire des textes 7 (1977), 247–69, ‘A l'école de Donat, de saint Augustin à Bède’, Latomus 36 (1977), 522–38, and the extensive introduction to his Donat et la tradition de l'enseignement grammatical (Paris, 1981).

6 The term ‘grammar’ is frequently used in confusing ways, and even in medieval usage grammatica had various senses. I will reserve the term ‘grammatica’ for the whole discipline devoted to literacy and the study of literary texts, including principles for exegesis. I will use the term ‘grammar’ specifically for the elementary level of grammatica pertaining to learning Latin and beginning proficiency in the reading of Latin texts. This essay is concerned with the higher levels of grammatica, for which grammar was seen as the necessary introduction.

7 On this text see Bischoff, Bernhard, ‘Eine verschollene Einteilung der Wissenschaften’, in his Mittelalterliche Studien, 3 vols. (Stuttgart, 1966–1981) 1, 273–88Google Scholar; Law, , The Insular Latin Grammarians, pp. 87–90Google Scholar; and Holtz, , Donat et la tradition de l'enseignement Grammatical, pp. 267–71, 284–94, 311–12, and 476–78Google Scholar. As mentioned below, an edition of this treatise by Prof. Bischoff and Dr Burkhard Taeger is forthcoming; I should like to thank them both for allowing me to consult a photocopy of their working text which I have used to check my own transcriptions made from microfilm of the manuscript.

8 For general background, see Fontaine, Jacques, Isidore de Séville et la culture classique dans l'Espagne wisigothique, 2 vols. (Paris, 1959)Google Scholar, and Marrou, H.-I., Saint Augustin et la fin de la culture antique, 4th ed. (Paris, 1958).Google Scholar

9 De Musica 11.i. 1: ‘Atqui scias velim totam illam scientiam, quae grammatica grece, latine autem litteratura nominatur, historiae custodiam profiteri, vel solam, ut subtilior docet ratio; vel maxime, ut etiam pinguia corda concedunt’ (PL 32, 1099). Varro's definition of grammatica, and his Latin term for the Greek grammatike, is preserved in Marius Victorinus's Ars grammatica, 1: ‘ut Varroni placet, ars grammatica, quae a nobis litteratura dicitur, scientia est earum quae a poetis historicis oratoribusque dicuntur ex parte maiore. eius praecipua officia sunt quattuor, ut ipsi placet, scribere legere intellegere probare’ (Grammatici Latini, ed. Keil, H., 7 vols. with supplement (= VIII, ed. H. Hagen) (Leipzig, 1857–1880) vi, 4 (hereafter cited as GL)).Google Scholar

10 Soliloquia 11.xi.19: ‘Est autem grammatica vocis articulatae custos et moderatrix disciplina: cuius professionis necessitate cogitur humanae linguae omnia etiam figmenta colligere, quae memoriae litterisque mandata sunt, non ea falsa faciens, sed de his veram quamdam docens asserensque rationem’ (PL 32, 894).

11 De ordine 11.xii.37: ‘sed quia ipso nomine profiteri se litteras clamat, unde etiam latine litteratura dicitur, factum est ut quidquid dignum memoria litteris mandaretur, ad earn necessario pertineret’ (PL 32, 1012).

12 Etymologiae 1.xli.2: ‘Haec disciplina [historia] ad Grammaticam pertinet, quia quidquid dignum memoria est litteris mandatur’ (ed. Lindsay, W. M., Isidori Hispalensis Episcopi Etymologiarum sive Originum hibri XX, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1911)).Google Scholar

13 Historia Ecclesiastica iv.i (ed. Colgrave and Mynors, p. 330).

14 The Old English Bede adds that Hadrian and Theodore taught ‘grammaticcræft’ along with metrics and astrology; see The Old English Version of Bede's Ecclesiastical History, ed. Miller, Thomas, 2 vols. in 4 pts, EETS 95–6 and 110–11 (London, 1890–1898) 1.2, 258. CfGoogle Scholar. the following glosses to Aldhelm's prose De virginitate, ed. Goossens, Louis, The Old English Glosses of MS Brussels, Royal Library, 1650 (Aldhelm's De laudibus virginitatis) (Brussels, 1974)Google Scholar, cited with Goossens's gloss nos.: litterature] stæfcræftas, cyste (for (stæf)cyst) (2931); grammaticorum] litteratorum stæfcræftiera (2227); grammaticorum] stæfcræftigra (294, 2756, 5348); litterarum] dogmatum lara (2053); litterarum].i. dogmatum stafana (2269); litteris liberalibus] boclicum stafum (4023). The Aldhelm glosses in Oxford, Bodleian Library, Digby 146, which are derived from those in the Brussels manuscript, were ed. Napier, Arthur S., Old English Glosses, Chiefly Unpublished (Oxford, 1900)Google Scholar; cf. the following glosses: 1.3031, 7.219, 1.3114, 1.194, 1.2266, 1.5475, and 1.2848.

15 See Jeudy, Colette, ‘L' Ars de nomine et verbo de Phocas: Manuscrits et commentaires médiévaux’, Viator 5 (1974), 61–156, at 114–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar (for Naples, BN iv. A. 34) and 120–3 (for Oxford, Bodleian Library, Add. C. 144); Holtz, Louis, Donat, pp. 371–4Google Scholar (for Paris, BN lat. 13025) and 409–12 (for Oxford, Bodleian Library, Add. C. 144).

16 These texts were edited by Keil in GL: Maximus Victorinus (vi, 187–205); Diomedes (1, 299–529). The opening sections of Victorinus are nearly identical to those in the Ars attributed to Audax (see vii, 320–62.)

17 These glosses were edited by Napier, , Old English Glosses, pp. 218–19Google Scholar; see Law, ‘The Study’, p. 60.

18 ‘What is grammatica? The science of interpreting the poets and narrative writers and the principles (ratio) for correct writing and speaking, apo ton grammaton, that is from letters, for which the Latin name ‘litteratura’ or ‘litteralitas’ is given by some’ (GL vi, 188). This definition also appears in the anonymous ‘Incipit de arte grammatica’ in Oxford, Bodleian Library, Add. C. 144, 68v (and begun but broken off in Vatican, Pal. lat. 1746, 62r), and in an anonymous compilation in Worcester Cathedral Library, Q.5, 74r, a manuscript which also contains Bede's De arte metrica and De schematibus et tropis.

19 ‘Grammatica is particularly the practical knowledge of reading (lectio) and explaining things said by poets and [prose] writers – by poets, so that style (ordo) may be preserved, by [prose] writers, so that style may lack faults. There are two divisions of grammatica: one is called exegetical, the other definitive. The exegetical part is interpretation, which pertains to the office of reading. The definitive part makes definitions which demonstrate precepts of this kind: the partes orationis, and the faults and ornaments of style. But the whole of grammatica consists primarily in the understanding of the poets, prose writers, and narrative writers by ready exposition, and in the principles (ratio) of correct speaking and writing’ (GL 1, 426).

20 See below, pp. 43–4. The section of the Bodleian manuscript containing the text on ‘Modulatio’ is badly worn and most of the ink has either rubbed or flaked off. Reading with ultra-violet light has recovered some of the text, but most of this section is too badly damaged to be of use.

21 The author has a habit of using the expression ‘et reliqua’ throughout the preface, even when he does not seem to be abbreviating a quotation, indicating either that he was working from a fuller source or that he assumed that there was more to be said about the subject.

22 ‘Enarratio est obscurorum sensuum quaestionumve explanatio, vel exquisitio per quam uniuscuiusque rei qualitatem poeticis glossulis exsolvimus’ (GL 1, 426).

23 ‘Emendatio est qua singula prout ipsa res postulat dirigimus aestimantes universorum scriptorum diversam sententiam, vel recorrectio errorum qui per scripturam dictionemve fiunt’ (ibid.).

24 ‘ludicium est quo omnem orationem recte vel minus quam recte pronuntiatam specialiter iudicamus, vel aestimatio qua poema ceteraque scripta perpendimus’ (ibid.).

25 See Leclercq, Jean, The Love of Learning and the Desire for God, trans. Misrahi, C. (New York, 1974), pp. 1–30 and 139–84.Google Scholar

26 ‘Nam et spiritus sanctus docet nos psallere sapienter et lector in aeclessia catholica ordinari non sinitur nisi qui legere et scire potest syllabas et accentuum rationem et species et naturas dictionum et distinctiones sententiarum, ut Isidorus [Essidorus MS] dicit in libro de officialibus aecles〈i〉ae catholicae’ (23va). The author continues: ‘Idcirco erga sum〈m〉opere uidendum est non pro modico habere, grammatica ars quae non sciatur officia aeclesiae sanctae inpedire ualet, nam illa quae Isidorus [Issidoros MS] conuenire lectori dicit, nullo modo sine grammaticae scientia artis in quoquam esse possunt’ (23 va–b). For Isidore of Seville's discussion of the role of the lector see De ecclesiasticis officiis (De lectionibus and De lectoribus) (PL 83, 744–5 and 791–2).

27 On glosses as evidence for literary study, see Michael Lapidge, ‘The Study of Latin Texts in late Anglo-Saxon England, 1: The Evidence of Latin Glosses’, and Page, R. I., ‘The Study of Latin Texts in late Anglo-Saxon England, 11: The Evidence of English Glosses’, in Latin and the Vernacular Languages in Early Medieval Britain, ed. Brooks, Nicholas (Leicester, 1982), pp. 99–140 and 141–65Google Scholar. The glosses to Prudentius and Arator in the ‘Cambridge Songs’ manuscript have been carefully studied by Wieland, Gernot, The Latin Glosses on Arator and Prudentius in Cambridge University Library MS Gg. 5. 35 (Toronto, 1983)Google Scholar; see also ‘The Glossed Manuscript: Classbook or Library Book?’, ASE 14 (1985), 153–73. I intend to investigate this relation between grammatica and unpublished glosses and commentaries in future research. Another important record of grammatical methodology which should not be overlooked is the large corpus of surviving glossaries compiled in the eighth to the tenth centuries.

28 An early Insular literary manuscript which shows signs of these methods of reading is Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 173, an eighth-century copy of Caelius Sedulius, Carmen Paschale and other works, with Latin interlinear glosses and some Old English glosses. Glossing, learned from grammatical methodology, appeared in a wide range of texts including the Scriptures. Forexample: Cambridge, Trinity College, B. 10. 5 (Northumbria, s. viii), a copy of the Pauline Epistles with numerous marginal glosses. Ninth- to eleventh-century grammatical and literary manuscripts provide a record of the procedures of grammatica in great detail. The format of these manuscripts shows that the gloss was an integral feature of the book: wide margins were ruled in advance for an accompanying commentary. Of the many manuscripts of this type that I have investigated, I should cite the following as striking examples of grammatical methodology preserved in the format of the manuscripts: Cambridge, Trinity College O. 4. 10 (St Augustine's Canterbury, s. x), containing Juvenal's and Persius's Satirae with marginal commentary (leaves show two sets of pricking marks for ruling text and gloss and inner and outer bounding lines to separate the marginal space for glosses from the central space for text); Orléans, Bibliothéque Municipale 295 (+ Vatican, Reg. lat. 980 + Leiden, Voss. lat. F. 12) (Reims, s. ix; provenance, Fleury), a grammatical anthology containing several grammatical and literary texts (Donatus, Priscian, Bede, Sedulius, Juvencus, Arator) in large folio format with wide margins ruled in advance for glosses; Oxford, Bodleian Library, Auct. F. 3. 6 (Exeter, s. xi1), containing the works of Prudentius with extensive interlinear and marginal gloss, the outer margins having been ruled in advance for the gloss.

29 ‘Maxime autem ad explanandas Donati grammatici regulas regulis grammaticorum latinorum manum porregam, qui sciunt quod latinitas est observatio incorrupte loquendi secundum Romanam linguam, et qui interrogati latinitatem quibus quotque modis constare respondere sciunt tribus, hoc est, ratione auctoritate consuetudine. Ratione scilicet secundum tecnicos, id est, secundum eos qui artes tradunt, ut sunt grammatici quorum est princeps idem de quo sermo disponitur Donatus. Auctoritate autem secundum ueterum lectionum dicta, id est, aut secundum poetas, ut fuit Virgilius et alii, aut etiam secundum antiquarios scilicet historiarum scriptores. Consuetudine uero quae et ipsa duobus modis constat, uidel〈ic〉et imperitorum quibus barbarismi adscribuntur aut eorum qui medie loquuntur quae placita ussu adsumptaque sunt’ (21va).

30 See Dionisotti, ‘On Bede, Grammars, and Greek,’ p. 121.

31 I cite the line numbers and text from the edition by Charles W. Jones (cited above, n. 2).

32 The main source for this item is Augustine's Quaestiones in Heptateuchum 11, 177, 9; the example is from Psalm 95.9 or 28.3.

33 The terms probably come from the lost grammatical text, related to Charisius's work, from which Bede drew; see Dionisotti, ‘On Bede, Grammars and Greek’, pp. 115–18. The comments are Bede's own.

34 This item is Bede's own. The examples are from Psalm 60.3 and 61.4, Gregory's, Moralia, Praef. 5.12Google Scholar, and Vergil, , Eclogae 9.23Google Scholar. I cannot find this Vergilian quotation in any of the indices to the major grammatical texts known to Bede; it provides independent evidence for Bede's knowledge of Vergil.

35 The source of the text commented on is Augustine's, Enarrationcs in Psalmos, Psalm 118 (Serm. 8.1)Google Scholar, and Bede also appears to have drawn from the list of differentiae he had at hand. I cite only half of the item here for the sake of brevity.

36 Priscian's, Jones citesInstitutiones, bk xviiGoogle Scholar, for the grammatical item here, but this is highly doubtful since we have no evidence that the Institutiones were known by Bede or his contemporaries; see Law, , The Insular Latin Grammarians, p. 21Google Scholar. The example from Gregory is from Hom. in Evang. 11.xxiv.4.

37 On the question of Bede's knowledge of Vergil see Wright, N. R., ‘Bede and Vergil’, Romanobarbarica 6 (1981), 361–79; see above, n. 34.Google Scholar

38 ‘You have sent me Caper's little book on orthography. This subject conforms to your purposes and your practices, as you, who wish to correct us in the actions of this life, also make corrections in the pursuit of writing. You believe, therefore, that nothing which pertains to us is outside your correction: all our affairs, even minor ones, you examine with an anxious search and they come to your attention – from living to writing, from the mind to the hand, from the heart to the finger. This is truly the best priest of God, as you yourself have frequently said, who imbues according to the spirit and teaches thoroughly according to the letter the people entrusted to him. Therefore, to Caper's little book, which is on orthography and the properties or distinctions of discourse, I have appended some additions … This little work (in which you will labour much) is sent to you, for whom it is necessary to emend it, who presumes to emend something. Sacred piety will grant that we, who wish to observe what is written by you, are also able to preserve your precepts’ (GL vii, 113–14).

39 ‘omnes litterae quibus utimur …’ (De arte metrica 1.1, ed. Kendall, p. 83). All references to Bede's, De arte metrica and De schematibus et tropis are from the edition by C. B. Kendall cited above, n. 2.Google Scholar

40 ‘Et ideo cum codicem exametri uel elegiaci carminis adsumis in manus, quamcumque paginam aperiens inspexeris, quemcumque uersum arripiens legeris, absque ulla dubietate primam syllabam aut natura aut positione longam inuenies, quod nimirum siue spondei seu dactyli constat esse principium’ (De arte metrica, ed. Kendall, p. 95).

41 ibid. pp. 111–15.

42 Riché, , Education and Culture, p. 392.Google Scholar

43 ‘et Lucanus, poeta ueteranus, Caesaris et Pompei proelia descripturus, ita incipit …’ (Dearte metrica, ed. Kendall, p. 115).

44 See, inter alia, Clement of Alexandria, , Stromateis vi.xv. 126.1 – 127.3 (ed. Stählin, Otto, Clemens Alexandrinus, 4 vols., Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller der ersten Jahrhunderte (Leipzig, 1905–1936) 11, 495–6)Google Scholar; Origen, Commentarium in Canticum Canticorum: Prologus (ed. W. A. Baehrens, in Origines Werke, 12 vols., ed. Koetschau, P. et al. , Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller der ersten Jahrhunderte, iv, 61–3)Google Scholar; Jerome, , Praef. in Job (PL 28, 1079–1784)Google Scholar; Cassiodorus, , Expositio Psalmorum, ed. Adriaen, M., 2 vols., CCSL 97–8 (Turnhout, 1958) 1, 19–20Google Scholar. Augustine also uses a version of this argument in De doctrina Christiana 111.xxix.40.

45 ‘Quo genere metri ferunt canticum Deuteronomii apud Hebreos, sed et psalmos CXVIII et CXLIIII esse scriptos. Namque librum beati Iob simplici exametro scriptum esse asseuerant’ (De arte metrica, ed. Kendall, p. 110). Bede is paraphrasing Cassiodorus, , Expos. Ps. 118.2–26Google Scholar and Jerome, Praef. in Job.

46 ‘Coenon est uel micton in quo poeta loquitur et personae loquentes introducuntur, ut sunt scripta Ilias et Odyssia Homeri et Aeneidos Virgilii et apud nos historia beati lob, quamuis haec in sua lingua non tota poetico, sed partim rethorico, partim sit metrico uel rithmico scripta sermone’ (De arte metrica, ed. Kendall, p. 140).

47 ibid. p. 141. ‘My dear son and fellow deacon Cuthbert, I have taken care diligently to select for you these things from the works of the ancient writers, and I have presented to you those things which I have discovered here and there, labouring for a long time, so that just as I have been diligent to instil in you the sacred letters and ecclesiastical statutes, so too I am instructing you readily in the art of metrics, which is not unknown in the sacred books. To this work I have considered it appropriate to add a little work on the figures or modes of speech, which the Greeks call schemes or tropes, and I, being diligent, prevail upon your love, that you expend your labour greatly in reading those letters [writings] which we believe have eternal life.’

48 ibid. pp. 142–3. ‘It is usual to find that the order of words in the Scriptures is frequently expressed in a figural way different from the common way of speaking for the sake of beauty. The grammarians call these “schemes” in Greek, but we correctly call them “manner”, “form” and “figure”. It is also usual to find expressions with tropes which come about from a transfer in a word from a proper signification to one not proper but similar for the sake of necessity or ornament. The Greeks boast that they invented these figures and tropes. But, my beloved son, that you and all who wish to read this work may know that Holy Scripture surpasses all other writings not only in its authority (because it is divine) or in its usefulness (because it leads to eternal life), but both in its antiquity and in its own expression, I have decided to demonstrate by collecting examples from Scripture itself, so that teachers of secular eloquence are able to present none of these schemes and tropes which did not first appear in Scripture.’

49 See Ulrich Schindel, ‘Die Quellen von Bedas Figurenlehre’, and Law, , The Insular Latin Grammarians, pp. 30–41.Google Scholar

50 ‘Allegory is a trope in which something other than what is said is understood. For example, “Lift up your eyes and look at the fields, that they are white already unto harvest”, that is, understand that the people are now ready to believe’ (De schematibus et tropis, ed. Kendall, p. 161).

51 ibid. pp. 164–5. ‘It should be noted that allegory is sometimes stated by things done and at others only by words. For example, allegory of things done: “For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the handmaid and the other by the free woman.” As the Apostle explains, these are the two covenants. An allegory in words alone: “And there shall come forth a shoot out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots shall bear fruit.” This signifies that from the lineage of David, the Lord our Saviour would be born through the Virgin Mary. Sometimes one and the same thing is signified allegorically by things done and by words.’

52 On the patristic and early medieval semiotic theory underlying Bede's discussion, see my forthcoming article, ‘Interpretation and the Semiotics of Allegory in the Works of Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Augustine’, Stmiotica 63 (1987). See also Strubel, Amand, ‘“Allegoria in factis” et “allegoria in verbis”’, Poétique 23 (1975), 342–57.Google Scholar

53 ‘In the same way, allegory of word or in things done may now denote an historical referent, now a typological meaning, now a tropological or moral meaning, now an anagogical meaning, which is the sense that leads figuratively to higher things’ (De schematibus et tropis, ed. Kendall, p. 166).

54 ibid. p. 169.

55 Isidore, Etymologiae 1.iii.2: ‘Litterae autem sunt indices rerum, signa verborum, quibus tanta vis est, ut nobis dicta absentium sine voce loquantur. Usus litterarum repertus propter memoriam rerum. Nam ne oblivione fugiant, litteris alligantur. In tanta enim rerum varietate nee disci audiendo poterant omnia, nee memoria contineri’; see also ibid. 1.xli.2: ‘Haec disciplina [historia] ad Grammaticam pertinet, quia quidquid dignum memoria est litteris mandatur.’

56 ‘I pray you, good Jesus, that as you have graciously granted me joyfully to drink in the words of your knowledge, so will you also, of your bounty, grant me to come at last to yourself, the source of all wisdom, and dwell in your presence for ever’ (Historia Ecclesiastica v.24, ed. Colgrave and Mynors, p. 570).

57 My book on Grammatica, which is in progress, will treat this subject in detail.

58 The Augustinian trope, widely known from the concluding paragraphs of bk 11 of De doctrina Christiana (11.xl.60–xlii.63), is quoted directly in the Anonymus ad Cuimnanum where it is used to defend the value of grammatical studies: ‘In his autem omnibus generibus sapientiae quaedam relegioni catholicae, quaedam gentili conveniunt, quaedam utrique, quia scriptura sancta, ut ait Augustinus, non ideo debet suas iecere panes, quod eas sibi gentiles vendicant: aurum namque argentumque Aegyptiorum commotato domino in aedificationem tabernaculi Dei adsumptum est’ (22vb).

59 See Wright, , ‘Bede and Vergil’. Wright was concerned with challenging the view of Peter Hunter Blair, that Bede had no first-hand knowledge of Vergil; see Hunter Blair, ‘From Bede to Alcuin’, in Famulus Christi, ed. Bonner, Gerald (London, 1976), pp. 259–60Google Scholar. Wright did not consider the extensive use of Vergil in Bede's exegetical works. The whole subject of Bede's use of classical authors needs to be reopened in the light of the dependence of exegesis on grammatical methodology.

60 See the references in the index auctorum to In Genesim, ed. Jones, C. W., CCSL 118a (Turnhout, 1967)Google Scholar; in these instances Jones's frequently overly optimistic catalogue of sources is correct.

61 ibid. 1.i.26 (ed. Jones, p. 26).

62 See A Theory of Semiotics (Bloomington, 1976) and Semiotics and the Philosophy of language (Bloomington, 1984).

63 See especially The Archaeology of Knowledge, trans. A. M. Sheridan Smith (New York, ).

64 See Venerabilis Baedae Opera Historica, ed. Plummer, C., 2 vols. (Oxford, 1896) 1, cxlv.Google Scholar

65 See Thought and Letters, p. 157, and Laistner and King, Hand-list of Bede Manuscripts, pp. 131–2 and 137.

66 See his Preface to Bedae Opera Didascalica I, CCSL 123A (Turnhout, 1975), x–xi, n. 6.

67 See the section on ‘School Treatises’ in Laistner, and King, , Hand-list of Bede Manuscripts, pp. 131–8.Google Scholar

68 See ‘On Bede, Grammars, and Greek,’ pp. 124–5.