Herman the Archdeacon and Goscelin of Saint-Bertin
Subtitle: Miracles of St Edmund
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2014
Language: eng; lat
Number of pages: 544
ISBN-13: 9780199689194
Subjects: Edmund, king of east anglia, 841-870; Saints; Christian literature; Great britain, history
Description: St. Edmund was medieval England's patron saint, and at his abbey, two major Latin miracle collections were compiled: one in the 1090s by Herman the Archdeacon, a historian trained in the schools of Lorraine; the other c. 1100 by an anonymous hagiographer who rewrote and expanded Herman's work. Herman's Miracles, an important text for the history of the realm and East Anglia in particular, is edited and translated here in its full fifty chapters for the first time, along with a shorter version intended for wider circulation. The second miracle collection, never before in print, is also presented for the first time and attributed to the Flemish hagiographer Goscelin of Saint-Bertin. Together the collections illustrate a rapid turnover of hagiography, connected to a change of leadership at the abbey of Bury St. Edmunds. These works illustrate the evolution of historical writing, applied to the affairs of an exceptional international cult. A poem attacking Bishop Herbert Losinga (1091-1119) for simony is also included, linked to Herman and the factional divisions behind the two miracle collections. This book will remain invaluable to literary scholars and historians alike.