Bibliography
Brandon W.
Hawk
Works authored
Hawk, Brandon W., Preaching apocrypha in Anglo-Saxon England, Toronto Anglo-Saxon Series, 30, Toronto, Buffalo, London: University of Toronto Press, 2018.
abstract:
Preaching Apocrypha in Anglo-Saxon England is the first in-depth study of Christian apocrypha focusing specifically on the use of extra-biblical narratives in Old English sermons. The work contributes to our understanding of both the prevalence and importance of apocrypha in vernacular preaching, by assessing various preaching texts from Continental and Anglo-Saxon Latin homiliaries, as well as vernacular collections like the Vercelli Book, the Blickling Book, Ælfric’s Catholic Homilies, and other manuscripts from the tenth through twelfth centuries.
Vernacular sermons were part of a media ecology that included Old English poetry, legal documents, liturgical materials, and visual arts. Situating Old English preaching within this network establishes the range of contexts, purposes, and uses of apocrypha for diverse groups in Anglo-Saxon society: cloistered religious, secular clergy, and laity, including both men and women. Apocryphal narratives did not merely survive on the margins of culture, but thrived at the heart of mainstream Anglo-Saxon Christianity.
abstract:
Preaching Apocrypha in Anglo-Saxon England is the first in-depth study of Christian apocrypha focusing specifically on the use of extra-biblical narratives in Old English sermons. The work contributes to our understanding of both the prevalence and importance of apocrypha in vernacular preaching, by assessing various preaching texts from Continental and Anglo-Saxon Latin homiliaries, as well as vernacular collections like the Vercelli Book, the Blickling Book, Ælfric’s Catholic Homilies, and other manuscripts from the tenth through twelfth centuries.
Vernacular sermons were part of a media ecology that included Old English poetry, legal documents, liturgical materials, and visual arts. Situating Old English preaching within this network establishes the range of contexts, purposes, and uses of apocrypha for diverse groups in Anglo-Saxon society: cloistered religious, secular clergy, and laity, including both men and women. Apocryphal narratives did not merely survive on the margins of culture, but thrived at the heart of mainstream Anglo-Saxon Christianity.
Contributions to journals
Hawk, Brandon W., “A fragment of Colossians with Hiberno-Latin glosses in St. Gall, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 1395”, Sacris Erudiri 51 (2012): 233–256.
abstract:
This article examines a fragment of the Epistle of Paul to the Colossians with a series of marginal comments included in St. Gall, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 1395. Written in a ninth-century Irish minuscule, this fragment has clear connections to early medieval Hiberno-Latin and Irish-influenced biblical exegesis, with implications for further study of this field. Many of the glosses derive from the Expositiones xiii epistularum Pauli by Pelagius, and the fragment therefore acts as a witness to the transmission of this work. A number of the non-Pelagian glosses remain unidentified in comparison with other early medieval commentaries, and such comments may be original to this fragment. Moreover, due to the layout of the manuscript with both biblical text and marginal commentary, this fragment also serves as evidence for shifts in exegetical and scribal practices in the ninth century. Considering the evidence of paleography, biblical text, and the character of the commentary, the early provenance (and possibly origin) for the fragment is placed at the abbey of St. Gall. The article concludes with an edition of both the biblical text and the marginal glosses.
abstract:
This article examines a fragment of the Epistle of Paul to the Colossians with a series of marginal comments included in St. Gall, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 1395. Written in a ninth-century Irish minuscule, this fragment has clear connections to early medieval Hiberno-Latin and Irish-influenced biblical exegesis, with implications for further study of this field. Many of the glosses derive from the Expositiones xiii epistularum Pauli by Pelagius, and the fragment therefore acts as a witness to the transmission of this work. A number of the non-Pelagian glosses remain unidentified in comparison with other early medieval commentaries, and such comments may be original to this fragment. Moreover, due to the layout of the manuscript with both biblical text and marginal commentary, this fragment also serves as evidence for shifts in exegetical and scribal practices in the ninth century. Considering the evidence of paleography, biblical text, and the character of the commentary, the early provenance (and possibly origin) for the fragment is placed at the abbey of St. Gall. The article concludes with an edition of both the biblical text and the marginal glosses.
