The Earliest Books of Canterbury Cathedral
Publisher: British Library; The Bibliographical Society; The British Library; The Dean and Chapter of Canterbury
Published: January 15, 2008
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 416
ISBN-13: 9780712350082
Subjects: Bibliographies, catalogues, discographies; History of ideas, intellectual history; c 1000 CE to c 1500; History; History - General History; History: World; Kent; Medieval; History / Medieval
Description: "One of the greatest literary centres throughout the Middle Ages, Canterbury still preservers - despite horrendous losses - a significant collection of medieval manuscripts. In this book Professor Richard Gameson has described and discussed all Canterbury's pre-thirteenth-century manuscripts for the first time. Each manuscript is illustrated in colour, several with more than one image. Highlights range from the oldest copies of the Alfredian translation of Gregory the Great's Dialogues, and of Lanfranc's gloss on the Epistles, through fine liturgica, to an extraordinarily grand copy of Peter Comestor's Historia Scholastica. Detailed descriptions are complemented by broad-ranging analyses that explain the significance of these works in general and of the Canterbury copies in particular. In a substantial introduction Professor Gameson traces the history of book-production in Kent and Canterbury up to c. 1200, follows the development and use of the Canterbury collections in the later Middle Ages, and discusses the fate of these books at the Reformation."--Jacket.