Alcuin: His Life and His Work

Excerpt taken from Preface:The following pages-in a somewhat different form-first saw the light as the Essay to which the Hulsean Prize for 1899 was award Editor

In Chapters I-IV a brief account of the early history of letters in Alcuin's native land serves to show how peculiarly he was fitted by the circumstances of his birth and training to undertake the various tasks which were successively imposed upon him.

In Chapters V-VIII an attempt is made to give a chronological history of his career-an attempt ren�dered somewhat difficult by the fact that of the three hundred and odd letters on which the biographer has chiefly to rely very few indeed can be precisely dat Editor

In Chapters VIII-X his achievements are sum�marised under three main heads: theological, educa�tional, liturgical and biblical. In the first and still more in the third of these chapters I have walked, with the unaccustomed step of the layman, in paths where even the specialist may reasonably fear to fall; and here I have been necessarily more dependent than usual on the guidance of expert authorities. Wherever independence of judgment would not savour merely of ignorant presumption, however, I have endeavored to maintain it: at least I have not con�sciously embodied in my work the untested conclusions of others in any case where I have believed myself at all competent to test them.

• ISBN-13: 9781598388367
• 298 pages
• Paperback : 5 x 8 inches