University Libraries Promotion and Tenure Recognition

Scott T. Smith Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature

Book Title: Anglo-Latin Literature 900-1066

Author: Michael Lapidge

Selection Statement:

This collection of essays dedicated to the Latin literature of Anglo-Saxon England opened my eyes to new vistas of texts and scholarship. The early English learned Latin as a foreign language in schools, and they took to it with an extraordinary vigor that generated an impressive and distinct body of Latin literature, much of it wonderfully strange and intensely learned. Michael Lapidge’s groundbreaking scholarship on Anglo-Latin texts has set the agenda for a generation of Anglo-Saxonists – indeed many of these essays have informed my own research interests and I am sure that they will continue to do so. I also love the style of Lapidge’s writing, how he lays out his evidence and surprises with his conclusions in a way that reminds me of classic detective fiction. The pieces sensibly click into place and something new comes into view. Michael Lapidge is an aglæca lareow for our own age, and this remarkable and rich book, with its plain little title, represents just a part of his growing legacy in Anglo-Saxon studies.


Year: 2013