An English-Saxon Homily on the Birthday of St. Gregory:

first edition, with side-by-side translation into modern English

The first edition of this Old English life of Pope Gregory the Great (c.540-604) by Ælfric, Abbot of the Benedictine monastery at Eynsham.

This was the first major publication by the female translator and Anglo-Saxon scholar Elizabeth Elstob (1683-1756),who reproduces Ælfric's text in its entirety with a parallel side-by-side translation into modern English, together with her extensive explanatory notes, a lengthy appendix containing Saint Gregory's epistles in Latin, as well as a comprehensive account of the Roman Christian mission to England launched in AD 596, and engraved portraits of the Pope and a historiated initial containing a portrait of Elstob herself engraved by Simon Gribelin. The text is followed by a Latin edition of the homily by Elstob's brother William.

Ælfric's works were prominent amongst the Anglo-Saxon manuscripts collected by the Archbishop of Canterbury Matthew Parker in the sixteenth century, where they were cited as evidence of the historical continuity of Protestant doctrines in England. 'His discussion of Eucharistic theory became the first Old English text to be printed when it was issued by Parker in 1566 and it was cited repeatedly in religious controversy down to the nineteenth century; but Parker rejected as an interpolation the two miracle stories with which Ælfric had carefully balanced his more figurative view of the eucharist' (ODNB).

First edition; 8vo (23.5 x 15 cm); parallel text in Old English and 'Modern English', engraved frontispiece, vignette title, signature clipped from top-margin, further vignette illustrations and engraved initials, the odd MS correction in pen, textblock slightly toned with occasional spotting; modern calf-backed marbled paper boards, red morocco lettering-piece to spine, marbled edges, very good; [10], lx, [2], 44, [4], 11, [3], 49, [7]pp.

ESTC T86163; Lancaster & Maslen D132.