Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T02:40:58.930Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Gildas and the Schools of Cirencester

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2010

Andrew Breeze
Andrew Breeze*
Affiliation:
Andrew Breeze, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Navarra, 31080 Pamplona, Spain. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The life of Gildas by an eleventh-century Breton monk mentions his education at ‘Iren’. Though often taken to mean ‘Ireland’, this is more probably a corruption of ‘Cerin’, the Old Welsh name of ‘Corinium’ or Cirencester. If so, it implies the survival in sixth-century Britain of traditional Roman schools.

Résumé

‘La vie de Gildas’, œuvre d’un moine breton du onzième siècle, fait mention de son éducation à ‘Iren’. Bien que l’on ait souvent pensé que ce nom voulait dire ‘Irlande’, il est plus probable qu’il s’agisse d’une corruption de ‘Cerin’, le nom de la ville de ‘Corinium’ (le Cirencester moderne) en vieux gallois. Si c’est exact, cela sous-entend que des écoles romaines traditionnelles existaient encore dans la Grande-Bretagne du sixième siècle.

Zusammenfassung

In ‘Das Leben von Gildas’, von einem bretonischen Mönch im elften Jahrhundert geschrieben, wird erwähnt, daß er in ‘Iren’ ausgebildet wurde. Obwohl es oft als ‘Irland’ verstanden wird, ist es warscheinlicher, daß es eine Korruption des Wortes ‘Cerin’ ist, eine alte walisische Bezeichnung für ‘Corinium’ (das heutige Cirencester). Wenn das bestätigt wird, kann man davon ableiten, daß römische Schulen in Großbritannien bis ins sechste Jahrhundert bestanden.

Type
Articles
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 90 , September 2010 , pp. 131 - 138
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Alcock, L 1971. Arthur’s Britain, London: Allen LaneGoogle Scholar
Anon 2008. ‘Gildas’, in The Welsh Academy Encyclopedia of Wales, Cardiff: University of Wales PressGoogle Scholar
Baring-Gould, S Fisher, J 1907–13. The Lives of the British Saints, 4 vols, London: Cymmrodorion SocietyGoogle Scholar
Breeze, A C 2008. ‘Where was Gildas born?’, Northern Hist, 45, 347–350CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Breeze, A C 2009. ‘Rosnat, Whithorn, and Cornwall’, Trans Dumfriesshire Galloway Natur Hist Antiq Soc, 83, 43–50Google Scholar
Britton, J (ed) 1847. The Natural History of Wiltshire by John Aubrey, FRS, London: Wiltshire Topographical SocietyGoogle Scholar
Charles-Edwards, T 1986. ‘Gildas: new approaches’, Cambridge Medieval Celtic Stud, 12, 115–120Google Scholar
Dark, K R 1994. Civitas to Kingdom: British political community 300–800, Leicester: Leicester University PressGoogle Scholar
Dark, K R 2000. Britain and the End of the Roman Empire, 2nd edn, Stroud: History PressGoogle Scholar
Davies, C 1995. Welsh Literature and the Classical Tradition, Cardiff: University of Wales PressGoogle Scholar
Dumville, D N 2007. Celtic Essays 2001–2007, 2 vols, Aberdeen: Centre for Celtic Studies, University of AberdeenGoogle Scholar
Frere, S 1967. Britannia, London: Routledge & Kegan PaulGoogle Scholar
George, K 2009. Gildas’s ‘De Excidio Britonum’ and the Early British Church, Woodbridge: Boydell PressGoogle Scholar
Higham, N J 2002. King Arthur: myth-making and history, London: RoutledgeGoogle Scholar
Jackson, K H 1953. Language and History in Early Britain, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University PressGoogle Scholar
Jackson, K H 1982. ‘Gildas and the names of the British princes’, Cambridge Medieval Celtic Stud, 3, 30–40Google Scholar
Kenney, J F 1929. The Sources for the Early History of Ireland: ecclesiastical, New York: Columbia University PressGoogle Scholar
Kerlouégan, F 1987. Le ‘De Excidio Britanniae’ de Gildas, Paris: Publications de la SorbonneCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keynes, S D Lapidge, M (trans) 1983. Alfred the Great, Harmondsworth: PenguinGoogle Scholar
Lapidge, M 1984. ‘Gildas’s education and the Latin culture of sub-Roman Britain’, in Gildas: new approaches (eds M Lapidge and D N Dumville), 27–50, Woodbridge: BoydellGoogle Scholar
Lloyd, J E 1911. A History of Wales, London: Longmans, Green & CoGoogle Scholar
Ó Riain, P 1999. ‘Finnio and Winniau: a return to the subject’, in Ildánach Ildírech (eds J Carey, J T Koch and P-Y Lambert), 187–202, Andover: Celtic Studies PublicationsGoogle Scholar
O’Sullivan, T D 1978. The ‘De Excidio’ of Gildas, Leiden: BrillCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Padel, O J 1988. A Popular Dictionary of Cornish Place-Names, Penzance: Alison HodgeGoogle Scholar
Rivet, A L F Smith, C 1979. The Place-names of Roman Britain, London: BatsfordGoogle Scholar
Salway, P 1981. Roman Britain, Oxford: Oxford University PressGoogle Scholar
Sharpe, R 2002. ‘Martyrs and local saints in Late Antique Britain’, in Local Saints and Local Churches in the Early Medieval West (eds A Thacker and R Sharpe), 75–154, Oxford: Oxford University PressCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sims-Williams, P 2006. Ancient Celtic Place-names, Oxford: Wiley-BlackwellGoogle Scholar
Thomas, C 1971. Britain and Ireland in Early Christian Times, London: Thames & HudsonGoogle Scholar
Thomas, C 1981. Christianity in Roman Britain to AD 500, London: BatsfordGoogle Scholar
Watson, W J 1926. The History of the Celtic Place-Names of Scotland, Edinburgh: W Blackwood & SonGoogle Scholar
Watts, V (ed) 2004. The Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names, Cambridge: Cambridge University PressGoogle Scholar
Williams, H (ed) 1899–1901. Gildae de Excidio Britanniae, London: Cymmrodorion SocietyGoogle Scholar
Williams, I 1929–31. ‘Enwau ac Anryfeddodau Ynys Prydain’, Bull Board Celtic Stud, 5, 19–24Google Scholar
Williams, I (ed) 1972. Armes Prydein, Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced StudiesGoogle Scholar
Wood, I 2009. ‘Britain and the Continent in the fifth and sixth centuries: the evidence of Ninian’, in St Ninian and the Earliest Christianity in Scotland (ed J Murray), BAR Brit Ser 483, 71–82, Oxford: ArchaeopressGoogle Scholar
Wooding, J M 2007. ‘Island and coastal churches in medieval Wales and Ireland’, in Ireland and Wales in the Middle Ages (eds K Jankulak and J M Wooding), 201–228, Dublin: Four Courts PressGoogle Scholar