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Durham University claims Bede as a forebear of its academic tradition, which is stretching things, but I always stop at Bede’s tomb in the Cathedral a pause in respect.
Yet I am not sure how seriously I took Bede, some of his “history” was a little creative, and therefore it was great to hear the real scholarly standing that his wide ranging work holds.
It also shows that Bede never traveling far from his Monastery in North East England was very much plugged into the beating heart of intellectual society across Europe – our sense of the centre and the margins is challenged.
But I don’t think we ever get a “Theory of Everything” – a catchy title that is not followed through – Bede was interested in everything but we don’t quiet get his overarching organising thought.
There is also a lot of repetition, with each chapter feeling a little like an independent essay and therefore each time setting out key bibliographical and historical context that we were increasingly familiar with.
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