Edition of Anglo-Saxon kalendars reveals much about the history of the period.
The surviving Anglo-Saxon Kalendars are not only valuable evidence for the cults of particular saints; they also help to date and localise the manuscripts in which they are found, providing important information for the palaeographer and cultural historian. This volume collates the texts of twenty-seven such kalendars, written or owned in England before 1100, into monthly tables to allow easy comparison of which saints are included and to give a sense of how rare a particular feast was. It also has an introduction to the use of kalendars in the study of Anglo-Saxon England, and a discussion and bibliography of each kalendar manuscript. An index of names allows easy discovery of variant feast days for the same saint.
Dr REBECCA RUSHFORTH is Research Associate in the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic, University of Cambridge.