New Latin Contexts for Old English Homilies: Editions and Studies of Ten Sources and Analogues

This book sheds new light on the Latin background of various Old English homilies, and of certain homilies from related vernacular traditions. Two broad themes are treated, the Nativity of Christ and Christian eschatology; the volume contains five Latin texts dealing with each theme. Critical editions, full English translations, and detailed introductions and commentaries are included, as well as case studies that demonstrate the relevance of each text to one or more homilies written in Old English, and, in a few cases, early Middle English and Old Norse. While the volume is intended for scholars of early English preaching, many of the texts hold considerable intrinsic interest and should have general appeal for medievalists, students of preaching, and those working on the transmission of biblical apocrypha in the Latin West.