“Diuiduntur in quattuor”: the Interim and Judgement in Anglo-Saxon England

The division of souls in the afterlife into groups of three or four can be found in the works of many patristic and medieval authors, drawing on a number of traditions about the fate of the soul in the interim and at judgement. These groupings have often been the subject of confusion, not least because it is sometimes difficult to ascertain whether descriptions of the various groups of souls are intended to refer to the interim or to the judgement. This paper seeks to clarify and explore some of these divisions as they were discussed in Anglo-Saxon England: first in vision accounts by two eighth-century authors, Boniface, a missionary to the Continent, and the Venerable Bede; and secondly in the works of two later authors, Ælfric of Eynsham in the tenth century and Goscelin of Saint-Bertin in the eleventh

The Power of Binding and Loosing: The Chains of Sin in Anglo-Saxon Literature and Liturgy

This article examines discussions and representations of the chains of sin in Anglo-Saxon liturgy and saints' lives, considering in particular the idea of post-mortem release from sin

Распределение продовольствия: роль зерновых культур как основного продукта питания в классическую древность

Статья посвящена изучению роли зерна в рационе питания жителей Древней Греции и Рима; авторы затронули вопрос о мерах веса, стоимости зерна, о торговых путях, по которым оно привозилось в крупные города, о сельскохозяйственных районах, где выращивались зерновые культуры

Oxford, Bodleian Library, Junius 121

A description of Oxford, Bodleian Library, Junius 12

Paul Fouracre, Eternal light and earthly concerns: Belief and the shaping of medieval society (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2021), 248pp

Revie

Writing on the wall: Anglo-Saxons at Monte Sant’Angelo sul Gargano (Puglia) and the spiritual and social significance of graffiti

Among the early medieval names inscribed on the walls at the shrine of S. Michele at Monte Sant’Angelo sul Gargano are a small number from Anglo-Saxon visitors, all but one written in runic script. This article employs those names as a lens through which to explore issues of devotion and identity in the context of pilgrimage and travel, by focusing on the particular physical, religious and performative contexts which led to their production. Firstly, it examines the spiritual and religious significance of the graffiti by considering the multiple meanings that inscribing or reading such inscriptions might have held for contemporaries. Secondly, it explores the opportunity that the graffiti offer for investigating aspects of identity and belonging, arising as they do from situations in which long-distance visitors found themselves far away from home and where facets of commonality and alterity could be brought into sharp focus. By examining these themes in relation to the surviving names, it is possible to bring to light the range of meanings that the act(s) of writing inscriptions at Monte Gargano might have held for contemporaries within medieval western Europe, and what might have been understood by visitors reading the inscriptions that others had left behind

Yann Coz, Rome en Angleterre. L'image de la Rome antique dans l'Angleterre anglo-saxonne, du VIIe siècle à 1066, Bibliothèque d'histoire médiévale, 5 (Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2011), 520pp

Revie

Quaestio Insularis

Quaestio Insularis, 200