Description: New editions and translations of the two earliest texts for the rite of royal anointing in Anglo-Saxon England.
This volume provides new editions and translations of the two earliest texts for the rite of royal anointing in Anglo-Saxon England. The First Ordo, believed to go back to the ninth century, perhaps even a little before, is the earliest surviving coronation liturgy from anywhere in the West. The compilation of the Second English Ordo has been assigned to the late ninth or early tenth century. David Pratt's edition and translation presents this extremely important material in a scholarly but fully accessible way for the first time. New editions are desirable, not only for the intrinsic value of scrutinizing the text and transmission history of both ordines, but for the light which can be cast on the early history of the rite of royal anointing in England. That history is a subject which unfortunately cannot be studied with reference to any single, authoritative manuscript, but must rather be explored comparatively, by looking across the manuscript record of later Anglo-Saxon and Frankish pontificals, and by identifying patterns of development.Brief description: Dr David Pratt is Fellow and Director of Studies in History at Downing College, Cambridge. His principal research interest is in the political thought and court culture of the early Middle Ages, especially in Anglo-Saxon England and the Carolingian world. His first book, The Political Thought of King Alfred the Great (2007), is a comprehensive study of political thought at King Alfred's court.
Review Quotes: By laying out the manuscript evidence so clearly Pratt has provided material for future scholars, and for that they should be, as I am already, very grateful.-- "EARLY MEDIEVAL EUROPE"