Description
Book SynopsisThe writings of two influential Elizabethan thinkers testify to the influence of Old English law and literature on Tudor society and self-image. Full of fresh and illuminating insights into a way of looking at the English past in the sixteenth century... a book with the potential to deepen and transform our understanding of Tudor attitudes to ethnic identity and the national past. Philip Schwyzer, University of Exeter. Laurence Nowell (1530-c.1570), author of the first dictionary of Old English, and William Lambarde (1536-1601), Nowell's protégé and eventually the first editor of theOld English Laws, are key figures in Elizabethan historical discourses and in its political and literary society; through their work the period between the Germanic migrations and the Norman Conquest came to be regarded as a foundational time for Elizabethan England, overlapping with and contributing to contemporary debates on the shape of Elizabethan English language. Their studies took different strategies in demonstrating the role of early medieval history in Elizabethan national -- even imperial -- identity, while in Lambarde's legal writings Old English law codes become identical with the "ancient laws" that underpinned contemporary common law. Their efforts contradict the assumption that Anglo-Saxon studies did not effectively participate in Tudor nationalism outside of Protestant polemic; instead, it was a vital part of making history "English". Their work furthers our understanding of both the history of medieval studies and the importance of early Anglo-Saxon studies to Tudor nationalism. Rebecca Brackmann is Assistant Professor of English, Lincoln Memorial University.
Trade ReviewA sound, scholarly study. * PARERGON *
An excellent book containing a wealth of information on Tudor England's intellectual engagement with Anglo-Saxon England. . I recommend it highly to Anglo-Saxon scholars, Renaissance scholars, and also general readers with an interest in the development of the English language. * SIXTEENTH CENTURY JOURNAL *
Meticulously researched and engagingly written. * NOTES AND QUERIES *
Offers a fresh perspective on the historiography of Old English studies in the sixteenth century. . An excellent, interesting book which is a must-read for anyone interested in the mediaeval and the early modern approaches to the history of Old English Studies. * ANGLIA, 2013, 131 (1) *
An excellent place to begin for background information on the earliest Anglo-Saxonists and the role of Anglo-Saxon studies in early modern England. * MEDIEVALLY SPEAKING *
The invention of Anglo-Saxon England, then [...] was an integral part of a nationalistic movement that went beyond religious polemic. Brackmann's book shows why ignoring the Anglo-Saxons is a myopic enterprise. It has obscured the real and complex contours of what the Elizabethans thought constituted English identity and the English past. * RENAISSANCE QUARTERLY *
[S]imultaneously expansive in scope and painstaking in detail. Brackmann negotiates the delicate balance with meticulous care, and her conclusions are appropriately cautious when evidence warrants. * THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW *
Table of ContentsThe Anglo-Saxonists and Their Books: Print, Manuscript, and the Circulation of Scholarship The AbcedariumGlossary: Sources and Methods of Nowell's Old English Lexicography Inkhorns, Orthographers, and Antiquaries: Standardized English and the Dawn of Anglo-Saxon Studies Somewhere in Time: The Abcedarium Place-Name Index Putting the Past in Place: Lambarde's Alphabetical Description and Perambulation of Kent Images and Imaginings of England "The Saxons, our Ancestors": Ancient Law and Old English Laws Conclusion: The Invention of Anglo-Saxon English Bibliography
