Anglo-Saxon England: Volume 4

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The materials studied in this volume extend from small pieces of evidence made to reveal Frankish influence on the beginnings of Bath Abbey to a post-Conquest gradual recognized as unique testimony to the pre-Conquest music of Christ Church, Canterbury. An arcane style of Latin poetry much in vogue in tenth-century England is given a full account; likewise an eleventh-century Canterbury copy of a large anthology of Latin poetry for classroom use is properly described. A discussion of the aesthetic principles governing the use of colour in Anglo-Saxon manuscript illumination raises artistic questions not usually considered separately. The corpus of known Anglo-Saxon moneyers is further rectified; late Anglo-Saxon metal-work is surveyed; two decades of post-Stenton debate about the Viking settlements are reviewed; a system of standardizing short titles for Old English texts is presented and there is the usual bibliography of the previous year's corpus of Anglo-Saxon studies.