Bede

Scott De Gregorio (University of Michigan-Dearborn)

Ed. by Hugh Magennis, Queen's University Belfast
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.01: English Writing and Culture: Old English, 500-1066.
Vol. editors: Richard William Dance (University of Cambridge), Hugh Magennis (Queen's University Belfast)

Dates

Born 673
Died 735
Activity 701-735

Places

Born in England
Active in England

Activities

Primary

Grammarian
Historian / Chronicler
Hymnist/ Psalmist
Letter-writer/ Diarist
Monk
Priest
Scholar
Scientist
Theologian
Translator

Resources

Bede's Works

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The Venerable Bede, Anglo-Saxon England's most prolific Latin author and one of the greatest of the early Middle Ages, was born either in 672 or in 673, in the kingdom of Northumbria. His exact birthplace and parentage are unknown. He tell us himself, at the end of his

Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum

[

Ecclesiastical History of the English People

], only that he was born somewhere in the territory of the monastery of Wearmouth and that, when only seven years of age, he was given by his relatives into the charge of the monastery's founder, the thane-turned-monk Benedict Biscop (d. 689). But as to who these relatives were and why they committed him to the monastic life, Bede says no more. It is possible that his original parents passed away, leaving him to the care of more distant kin…

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1866 words

Citation: De Gregorio, Scott. "Bede". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 03 May 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4999, accessed 21 November 2024.]

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