Book contents
- History in Flames
- History in Flames
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Preface
- Chapter 1 Our Knowledge of the Past
- Chapter 2 Libraries and Archives
- Chapter 3 What Has Been Lost?
- Chapter 4 A Narrow Escape: Beowulf
- Chapter 5 ‘Away with the Learning of the Clerks!’
- Chapter 6 Strasbourg, 24 August 1870: The Garden of Delights
- Chapter 7 Dublin, 30 June 1922: The Public Record Office of Ireland
- Chapter 8 Naples, 30 September 1943: The State Archive
- Chapter 9 Hanover, 9 October 1943: The Ebstorf Map
- Chapter 10 Chartres, 26 May 1944: The Municipal Library
- Conclusion
- Figures
- Abbreviations
- Notes
- Index
Chapter 4 - A Narrow Escape: Beowulf
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 August 2024
- History in Flames
- History in Flames
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Preface
- Chapter 1 Our Knowledge of the Past
- Chapter 2 Libraries and Archives
- Chapter 3 What Has Been Lost?
- Chapter 4 A Narrow Escape: Beowulf
- Chapter 5 ‘Away with the Learning of the Clerks!’
- Chapter 6 Strasbourg, 24 August 1870: The Garden of Delights
- Chapter 7 Dublin, 30 June 1922: The Public Record Office of Ireland
- Chapter 8 Naples, 30 September 1943: The State Archive
- Chapter 9 Hanover, 9 October 1943: The Ebstorf Map
- Chapter 10 Chartres, 26 May 1944: The Municipal Library
- Conclusion
- Figures
- Abbreviations
- Notes
- Index
Summary
Some works survive by a thread. The Beowulf manuscript is a good example of how tenuous our knowledge of the medieval past can be, as it survives in only one manuscript that was very nearly incinerated in the Cottonian fire of 1731. The chapter describes the knowledge that existed of the manuscript prior to that – virtually none – and the scholarly work done on it since then.
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- Information
- History in FlamesThe Destruction and Survival of Medieval Manuscripts, pp. 50 - 59Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024