In 1969 the Clarendon Press published the new edition of Bede's classic history in Oxford Medieval Texts, edited by Bertram Colgrave and Sir Roger Mynors. Mynors's masterly text and textual introduction replaced much of Charles Plummer's great edition of 1896; but the historical notes did not attempt to match in scale and detail Plummer's second volume of commentary. To fill this gap the late Professor J. M. Wallace-Hadrill devoted the last years of his life to a new commentary, one of the finest and most mature fruits of his scholarship--more succinct than Plummer, tauter, more relevant,...

Since time immemorial, The Venerable Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the British People (completed in 791) has been recognized as a masterpiece of medieval historical literature. This companion to the landmark 1969 Clarendon Press edition is a new commentary by the late Professor J.M. Wallace-Hadrill. Among the finest and most mature examples of Wallace-Hadrill's scholarship, the commentary unifies and enriches the findings of numerous modern scholars.