The Poetry of Alcuin of York

Book excerpt: This volume offers for the first time in any language a translation of the poetic corpus of Alcuin of York (c. 735–804), numbering some 339 individual pieces and nearly 7,000 lines. An introduction touches on Alcuin’s life, his writings (including doubtful works and pseudepigrapha), his Latinity, his place in the Latin literary tradition, and the manuscripts, textual history, and editions of his poetry. The translations follow Dümmler’s Latin text, with each poem controlled by a headnote that places the piece in its historical and literary contexts. A series of appendices offers translations of selected letters, a register of the poems by meter, a census of nearly 200 manuscripts with digital links, and a prolegomenon to a new edition. The Poetry of Alcuin of York is a stimulating resource for anyone working on later Latin poetry, and late ancient literature more broadly. The poems also offer fascinating insights into life and scholarship in Anglo-Saxon England and in the Carolingian empire in the late eighth and early ninth centuries, and so will also be of interest to students of medieval history.