Anglo-Latin Literature, 900-1066

For much of the early Middle Ages, Anglo-Saxon schools and scholars were in the vanguard of European learning, and the extensive corpus of Latin literature which was produced in these schools can take its place proudly, alongside that of any other European country. Yet in spite of its innate interest and its importance to contemporaries, Anglo-Latin literature of the pre-Conquest period remains poorly understood. No bibliography of the subject exists. No comprehensive and authoritative history of pre-Conquest Anglo-Latin literature has ever been written, nor, given the significant number of texts still lying unpublished in manuscript, could it yet be written. Until the time when such a comprehensive history can be written, the essays collected in the present volume, together with those to appear in a complementary volume entitled "Anglo-Latin Literature, 600-899", may serve as a preliminary guide to the subject. It should be stressed, however, that the collection has no pretence to comprehensive coverage, and many areas of literary endeavour — for example, the great burst of hagiographical activity in the later eleventh century — still await scholarly attention.