EADMER OF CANTERBURY; SELDEN, John, ed.

£1,950 · Offered by Sokol Books

.Elegant copy of the editio princeps of this important medieval history of England, edited by the English antiquary and jurist John Selden - central to historians accounts of the English state under the Norman kings and its relations to the church (Maddicott, p.95). Together with those of Florence of Worcester and William of Malmesbury, Eadmer s work stands as one of the major medieval English histories. Eadmer (1060-1126) was an English monk based at the Benedictine Abbey of Christ Church, in Canterbury. There he met St Anselm, and became his secretary and closest companion, and composed influential theological (e.g., on the Immaculate Conception) and historical works. Historia deals with the history of England in 1066-1122, from William the Conqueror to Henry I. The ms was unearthed by Selden (1584-1654) in Robert Cotton s library, and here provided with a long philological, historical and methodological preface (including Eadmer s biography and the sources consulted), copious glosses and commentaries. The Historia begins from the last Anglo-Saxon kings - Edgar, Ethelred, Edward the Confessor, Harold. Interspersed with royal history is that of the English bishops; in particular, Eadmer upheld the pre-eminence of Canterbury over York, as episcopal seat. A long section on St Anselm during his years at Canterbury is also his first official public portrait written by someone who knew him, together with Eadmer s separate, and more private, Vita Anselmi . Selden s notes appear in

• Binding: Hardcover

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.