Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Saltzman’s book is impressive in its range, compelling in its argument, and significant in its contribution. I twill undoubtedly remain a touchstone for scholarship on early medieval notions of agency, interiority, and legal identity for a long time to come." * Speculum *
"Highly original,
Bonds of Secrecy reveals something that has been hidden in plain sight throughout a wide variety of texts and makes a significant impact on our understanding of historical and narrative motivations. Benjamin A. Saltzman succeeds in clearing away presentist mental furniture to reveal what secrecy meant to Anglo-Saxons who understood it to be inseparable from divine omniscience." * Leslie Lockett, The Ohio State University *
Table of ContentsA Note on References and Translations
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
PART I. LAW
Chapter 1. Political Epistemology and Crimes of Concealment in Anglo-Saxon Law
Chapter 2. The Secret Seized: Theft, Death, and Testimony
PART II. SPIRITUALITY
Chapter 3. Monastic Life and the Regulation of Secrecy
Chapter 4. Making Space for Spiritual Secrecy
Chapter 5. Seeing in Secret: Saints, Hagiography, and the Ethics of Concealment and Discovery
PART III. LITERATURE
Chapter 6. Binding Secrets, Solving Riddles
Chapter 7. Worldly Concealment, Divine Knowledge, and the Hermeneutics of Faith
Chapter 8. Reading Hidden Meaning: Between Interpretive Pride and Eschatological Humility
Afterword
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
