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IMC 2013: Sessions

Session 1201: Bede: Intellectual Landscapes, V - Medieval and Modern Reactions to Bede

Wednesday 3 July 2013, 14.15-15.45

Sponsor:Medieval Research Centre, University of Leicester
Organisers:Peter Darby, School of Historical Studies, University of Leicester
Máirín MacCarron, Department of History, National University of Ireland, Galway
Moderator/Chair:Sharon Rowley, Department of English, Christopher Newport University, Virginia
Paper 1201-aSubverting Bede: Gerald of Wales’s Topographia Hibernica and Its Response to the Historia Ecclesiastica on Ireland and the Irish
(Language: English)
Diarmuid Scully, School of History, University College Cork
Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Language and Literature - Latin
Paper 1201-bA Biography of Bede: Problems and Perspectives
(Language: English)
Sarah Foot, Christ Church, University of Oxford
Index terms: Historiography - Medieval, Language and Literature - Latin
Paper 1201-cThe Skull of Bede
(Language: English)
Joanna Story, School of Historical Studies, University of Leicester
Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Medievalism and Antiquarianism
Abstract

This strand explores the cultural and intellectual contexts that shaped the production or reception of Bede's works. Session V explores how medieval and modern audiences have reacted to Bede and his oeuvre: paper -a (Scully) examines how and why Gerald of Wales’s Topographia Hibernica subverted Bede’s positive representation of Ireland and the Irish in the Ecclesiastical History; paper -b (Foot) discusses the historiographical challenges arising from a project to write a major new biography of Bede; paper -c (Story) recounts the fascinating recent discovery of a cast of Bede's skull.