The Carmen de Hastingae Proelio of Guy, Bishop of Amiens
Guy, Bishop of Amiens author Frank Barlow editor
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Oxford University Press
Published:7th Oct '99
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
The Carmen de Hastingae Proelio is one of the most discussed sources for the Norman Conquest of England. Its authorship and date cannot be established entirely beyond dispute, but the weight of scholarly opinion supports a date of composition of 1068 or earlier, by Guy, bishop of Amiens, thus making it the earliest surviving account. Whatever its date, the Carmen remains a source of intrinsic interest and importance, and one used by some of the great chroniclers of the period, such as Orderic Vitalis. It is an epic poem, concerned with some of the most momentous events of a remarkable year, in which Halley's comet was a disturbing portent of undisclosed disasters. For this second edition, Frank Barlow has written an entirely new and substantial historical introduction, incorporating the scholarly research of a generation. He has also provided a fresh translation and notes, as well as revising the Latin text of the 1972 edition by Catherine Morton and Hope Muntz.
Barlow's treatment of the various versions of Harold's death is important and the discussion of the career of Bishop Guy adds an additional dimension to existing knowledge. Overall, Barlow's commentary undoubtedly requires that we rethink the way in which we approach the sources for the Battle of Hastings and therefore how we reconstruct the account of the battle itself. * David Bates, EHR *
This is a contribution of fundamental importance to the study of the Norman Conquest. * David Bates, EHR *
This is an impeccable new edition of the Carmen and a convincing attempt to lay to rest controversies about the poem's date and value which have bedivilled the study of the Battle of Hastings and the Norman Conquest of England for more than twenty years. Barlow's survey of the modern literature is comprehensive and his assessment of others' arguments meticulous. * David Bates, EHR *
As a state-of-the-art look at the historiography of Hastings, this little book is hard to surpass. * John Howe, H-Catholic. *
Bishop Guy s perspective is interesting ... Yet many readers of this Oxford Medieval Text may be less interested in the _ Carmen _ itself than in Barlow s introduction. It would be hard to find a more informed scholar than Barlow ... His introduction ... carefully contextualizes the poem by comparing it to all the major alternative sources. The three-page list of abbreviated references could itself serve as a point of departure for any student interested in beginning research on some aspect of the Battle of Hastings. * John Howe, H-Catholic. *
ISBN: 9780198207580
Dimensions: 224mm x 144mm x 14mm
Weight: 328g
152 pages
2nd Revised edition