Gildas
- fl. 5th–6th century
- feast-day: 29 January
Author of De excidio et conquestu Britanniae
See also references for related subjects.
Joyce, Stephen J., The legacy of Gildas: constructions of authority in the early medieval West, Studies in Celtic History, 43, Martlesham: Boydell Press, 2022.
Figures -- Preface and acknowledgements -- Abbreviations -- Introduction: 1. Narratives for early medieval Britain and Ireland -- 2. Images of Gildas -- 3. Gildas’s De excidio: authority and the monastic ideal -- 4. Columbanus and Gregory the Great -- 5. Gildas and the Hibernensis -- 6. Bede and Gildas -- Conclusion: The legacy of Gildas -- Appendix: De communicatione Gildas -- Bibliography -- Index.
Joyce, Stephen, “Memories of Gildas: Gildas and the Collectio canonum Hibernensis”, in: Jonathan M. Wooding, and Lynette Olson (eds), Prophecy, fate and memory in the early medieval Celtic world, Sydney: Sydney University Press, 2020. 148–169.
Olson, Lynette, “Armes Prydein as a legacy of Gildas”, in: Jonathan M. Wooding, and Lynette Olson (eds), Prophecy, fate and memory in the early medieval Celtic world, Sydney: Sydney University Press, 2020. 170–187.
Stancliffe, Clare, “Columbanus and shunning: the Irish peregrinus between Gildas, Gaul, and Gregory”, in: Alexander OʼHara (ed.), Columbanus and the peoples of post-Roman Europe, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018. 113–142.
Bemmer, Jaqueline, and T. M. Charles-Edwards, “Irish and Welsh law in the European contexts”, Clio@Themis 10 (2016). URL: <http://www.cliothemis.com/Irish-and-Welsh-Law-in-the>.
abstract:
This paper traces the relationship of the Roman Empire with Ireland and Wales from roughly the fifth to the seventh centuries and probes the role that Roman and Canon law played there following the events of 410, based on evidence from authors, such as Prosper of Aquitaine, Venantius Fortunatus, Zosimus and Gildas, as well as the vernacular legal traditions. This approach allows us to investigate perceptions of legal identity in Post-Roman Britain and the echoes of Latin learning embraced in Ireland.
OʼLoughlin, Thomas, Gildas and the Christian scriptures: observing the world through a biblical lens, Leiden, Boston: Brepols, 2013.
abstract:
Gildas is the earliest insular writer who has left us a substantial legacy of theological writing. He is usually, however, not seen as a theological writer but as an historical source for ‘dark age’ Britain at the time of the Germanic invasions in the mid-sixth century. Yet the deacon Gildas saw himself as a prophet charged by God to call the rulers and clergy of his society back to being a chosen people of the covenant. The form this call took was that of an indictment of those groups based on the testimonia of the Christian scriptures. This book is a study both of Gildas’s use of the scriptures (his text, his canon, his exegetical strategies) and of how, from the way he interprets sacred history, he created a distinctive theology of the church and of salvation.
(source: Brepols)
Herren, Michael W., “Patrick, Gaul, and Gildas: a new lens on the apostle of Ireland’s career”, in: Sarah Sheehan, Joanne Findon, and Westley Follett (eds), Gablánach in scélaigecht: Celtic studies in honour of Ann Dooley, Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2013. 9–25.
Charles-Edwards, T. M., “5. From Pelagius to Gildas”, in: T. M. Charles-Edwards, Wales and the Britons, 350–1064, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. 192–219.
Lake, Stephen, “Usage of the writings of John Cassian in some early British and Irish writings”, Journal of the Australian Early Medieval Association 7 (2011): 95–121.
abstract:
De institutis and Conlationes of John Cassian († c. 435) are generally assumed to have contributed significantly to the development of early western monastic thought and practice. While these writings circulated widely in the early Middle Ages, when we examine the ways in which they were read by various authors, it is more difficult to conclude that they directly shaped monastic experience. This paper supplements other work by this author and surveys the use of Cassian's writings in ten early British and Irish texts or groups of texts, illustrating diversity in the ways in which they are used and the difficulties in situating them within a specifically monastic context.
Woods, David, “Gildas and the mystery cloud of 536–7”, The Journal of Theological Studies NS 61:1 (April, 2010): 226–234.
abstract:
The De Excidio Britonum by Gildas is conventionally dated to the second quarter of the sixth century. An apparent allusion at DEB 93.3 to the mysterious cloud which obscured the sun and moon for a year or more in Europe in 536-7 suggests that he probably wrote in 536, while the occurrence of such a phenomenon may well explain what finally drove him to publish such a fierce call to repentance.
Kerlouégan, François, “Gildas (fl. 5th–6th cent.)”, Oxford dictionary of national biography, Online: Oxford University Press, 2007–.
Wright, Neil, “[XIV] Aldhelm, Gildas, and Acircius”, in: Neil Wright, History and literature in late antiquity and the early medieval West: studies in intertextuality, 503, Aldershot, Brookfield: Variorum, 1995. 1–28.
Wright, Neil, History and literature in late antiquity and the early medieval West: studies in intertextuality, Variorum Collected Studies Series, 503, Aldershot, Brookfield: Variorum, 1995.
85–105 [I] “Gildas's geographical perspective: some problems”
107–128 [II] “Gildas's prose style and its origins”
306–309 [III] “A note on Gildas's lanio fulve”
31–42 [IV] “Did Gildas read Orosius?”
121–162 [V] “Gildas's reading: a survey”
Wright, Neil, “[VI] Rufinus, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Gildas”, in: Neil Wright, History and literature in late antiquity and the early medieval West: studies in intertextuality, 503, Aldershot, Brookfield: Variorum, 1995. 1–38.
Higham, N. J., The English conquest: Gildas and Britain in the fifth century, Manchester, New York: Manchester University Press, 1994.
Kerlouégan, François, “Un exemple de metaphora reciproca dans le De excidio Britanniae: Gildas et la ‘Donat chrétien’”, Peritia 6–7 (1987–1988): 223–226.
Kerlouégan, François, Le De excidio Britanniae de Gildas: les destinées de la culture latine dans l'Île de Bretagne au VIe siècle, Paris: Presses de La Sorbonne, 1987. lxviii + 828 pp.
Lapidge, Michael, and David N. Dumville (eds), Gildas: new approaches, Studies in Celtic History, 5, Cambridge: Boydell Press, 1984.
Sims-Williams, Patrick, “Gildas and the Anglo-Saxons”, Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies 6 (Winter, 1983): 1–30.
Thompson, E. A., “Gildas and the history of Britain: corrigenda”, Britannia 11 (1980): 344.
Corrigenda to an article published in Britannia 10 (1979)
Kerlouégan, François, “Le Latin du De excidio Britanniae de Gildas”, in: M. W. Barley, and R. P. C. Hanson (eds), Christianity in Britain, 300-700: papers presented to the Conference on Christianity in Roman and Sub-Roman Britain, held at the University of Nottingham, 17–20 April 1967, Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1969. 151–176.
Deanesly, Margaret, “The implications of the term sapiens as applied to Gildas”, in: D. J. Gordon (ed.), Fritz Saxl, 1890-1948: a volume of memorial essays from his friends in England, London: T. Nelson, 1957. 53–76.
Davies, W. H., “Gildas: some textual notes and corrections”, Papers of the British School at Rome, New series, 15 (November, 1939): 42–48.
Ernault, Émile, “Le nom breton de saint Gildas”, Revue Celtique 48 (1931): 130–136.
Gallica: <link>
Loth, J., “Le nom de Gildas dans l'Île de Bretagne, en Irlande et en Armorique”, Revue Celtique 46 (1929): 1–15.
Gallica: <link>
Anderson, A. O., “Varia [1. The dating passing in Gildas’s Excidium; 2. Gildas and Arthur]”, Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 17 (1928): 403–406.
Robinson, J. Armitage, “The lives of St Cungar and St Gildas”, The Journal of Theological Studies 23:89 (October 1921, 1921–1922): 15–22.
Manitius, Max, Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters, 3 vols, vol. 1: Von Justinian bis zur Mitte des zehnten Jahrhunderts, Munich: Beck, 1911.
Digital.ub.uni-duesseldorf.de: <link> Digital.ub.uni-duesseldorf.de: View in Mirador
208 [31] “Gildas”
La Borderie, Arthur de, “La date de naissance de Gildas”, Revue Celtique 6 (1883–1885): 1–13.
Internet Archive: <link>
