Elizabeth Tyler is Professor of Medieval Literature at the University of York. Her research and teaching focuses on the literary culture of England from the ninth to the twelfth century. Situated at the intersection of literary study with intellectual, social and political history, her work stresses the international nature of English literature and draws attention to the key role England plays in the flourishing of European literary culture across the early and high Middle Ages. An abstract for her talk follows:
"Translatio imperii et studii: Orosius and the Making of Imperial English from Alfred the Great to the Conquest"
The Old English Orosius was produced in the West Saxon kingdom at some point during the reign of Alfred the Great, Edward the Elder or Athelstan (late 9th-early 10th century). It survives in two full manuscripts, one from the early-mid 10th century (British Library, Additional 47967) and one from the early 11th century (British Library, Cotton Tiberius B i). Both are intimately related to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles – Add. 47967 was copied in the same hand as the A Chronicle while the C Chronicle was carefully added to Tiberius B I in the mid 11th century.
This paper will use these two surviving manuscripts of the Old English translation of Orosius’s Historiae, set in the context of contemporary Latin and vernacular history-writing (insular and continental), to explore the place of imperial thinking to ideas about the nature of the kingdom of England and to theorizing about English as a written language: translatio imperii and translatio studii are closely intertwined here. England will be considered from several perspectives: as a composite of other smaller English kingdoms; in relation to the other kingdoms and peoples of Britain, (Scandinavian, Hiberno-Norse, Welsh and Scottish); and with regard to other imperial polities of the Latin West (Carolingian, Ottonian, Salian and Cnut’s North Sea Empire). Within this framework, we look at the links between the deep and politically active engagement of English secular and clerical elites with ancient history from Creation to the Fall of Rome and their politically and intellectually ambitious use of the vernacular for history-writing. This use of what was a small local language led to knowledge of English history being virtually inaccessible outside the bounds of England, as Sigebert of Gembloux complained when writing his famous universal Chronica, revealing the paradoxical nature of choosing to write history in English.
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Zoom link: https://columbiauniversity.zoom.us/j/93939946733
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Jilian Pizzi, [email protected]
