Ælfredi regis res gestæ

Folio. pp. [10], 40, [8]. Signatures: [π]A⁴ [par.]1 A-F⁴. Morocco, tooled and gilded. Title within woodcut borders. Engraved initials, tail-pieces. Printed annotations. Imprint from STC. Bound as issued with Thomas Walsingham's Historia Brevis Thomæ Walfingham, ab Edwardo primo, ad Henricum quintum, London, Binneman typographum, 1574; and Ypodigma Neustriæ vel Normanniæ, per Thomam de Walsingham. Ab irruptione Normannorum usq[ue]; ad annum 6. Regni Henrici quinti, London, in ædibus Iohannis Day, 1574 (preliminaries of the Historia misbound at beginning of volume). Armoried plate of Edward Hailstone.

 

The first printed edition of John Asser’s life of his supposed contemporary King Alfred, edited by Archbishop Parker and his assistants from a now-perished Cottonian manuscript, then in the Archbishop’s possession, that may have been textually ‘manipulated’ by Parker and his scholarly entourage. The work is now widely considered a confection produced a century after Alfred’s death. It also includes the Will of Alfred and the preface to his translation of St. Gregory's Pastoral care. The Res gestae and the Will are in Latin, printed in Anglo-Saxon characters, the preface to the Pastoral care is in Anglo-Saxon with an interlinear translation in English, followed by a Latin translation. For the probable manipulation of the text, see A Smyth (ed.), The medieval Life of King Alfred the Great. A Translation and Commentary on the Text attributed to Asser, Basingstoke, 2002, pp. 84–88. See also W. A. Jackson, F. S. Ferguson, & K. F. Pantzer (eds.), Short-title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland, & Ireland, and of English Books Printed Abroad, 1475–1640. 3 vols, London, 1976–91 (2nd ed.), 863.

 

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