medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

Dear Rosemary,

Thanks for this.

Careful readers of the ODNB Life of Lawrence of Durham will have observed that the most recent item cited in its bibliography is dated 1992. Lawrence's chief work, the _Hypognosticon_, was edited in 2002 by Udo Kindermann's former student and then colleague at Köln, Susanne Daub (now professor of medieval Latin and Neo-Latin at Jena): _Gottes Heilsplan--verdichtet : Edition des Hypognosticon des Laurentius Dunelmensis_ (Erlangen: Palm & Enke). A major monograph on Lawrence, also by Daub, appeared in 2005: _Von der Bibel zum Epos. Poetische Strategien des Laurentius am geistlichen Hof von Durham_ (Köln: Böhlau).

It is regrettable that Oxford has not found a reliable way of keeping current the selective but still highly valuable bibliographies that accompany the over 50,000 Lives in the ODNB.

Best,
John Dillon

On 03/16/15, Rosemary Hayes wrote:
> 
> I hope you'll forgive me for forwarding the whole of this ODNB Life of the Day, rather than the usual link. I'm using my iPad on a train and can't edit easily, but thought the subject's ideas might be of interest to List readers.
> 
> 
> Rosemary Hayes
> 
> Sent from my iPad
> 
> Begin forwarded message:
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> > From: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
> > Date: 16 March 2015 07:00:01 GMT
> > To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
> > Subject: Hypognosticon
> > Reply-To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
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> > 
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> > 
> > New: the ODNB is offering two Research Bursaries for 2015-16: we’re looking for interesting projects using the ODNB online in humanities research. Further details and application form: http://global.oup.com/oxforddnb/info/news/researchbursaries/
> > 
> > Our latest podcast: Margery Kempe (b. c.1373, d. in or after 1438), visionary and author of the earliest autobiography in English https://global.oup.com/oxforddnb/info/freeodnb/pod/
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> > David Cannadine talks to BBC History about his plans as Editor of the ODNB http://www.historyextra.com/podcast/life-workhouse-and-british-biographies
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> > ========================================================================
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> > 
> > To read this Life of the Day complete with a picture of the subject,
> > visit http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/lotw/2015-03-16
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > Durham, Lawrence of (c.1110-1154), poet and prior of Durham, was, as he relates in his Dialogi (which can be accepted as autobiographical in its circumstantial detail), born at Waltham, Essex; U. Kindermann has suggested a date of 1114, but this is perhaps a little late. Along with his brother, he was educated at the school of Holy Cross Church. From there he went to Durham (which had had close connections with Waltham since the time of Bishop Walcher), and became a monk during the episcopacy of Ranulf Flambard (d. 1128). He notes the esteem in which he was held for his poetry and singing, and eventually he became precentor in the monastery; at this time he may have taught Ailred, later of Rievaulx.
> > 
> > Under Bishop Geoffrey (1133-40) Lawrence moved temporarily to the bishop's court as an official of some kind, but returned to the monastery on Geoffrey's death. In 1143 the monastic tranquillity was disturbed when William Cumin, at the instigation of David, king of Scots (in support of the Empress Matilda), usurped the bishopric; his soldiers took over the monastery, and some of the monks (including Lawrence, it seems) were forced into exile. After military action Cumin was forced to leave in the autumn of 1144, and Lawrence returned to the monastery. All these events are described in his Dialogi. By 1147 Lawrence was sub-prior, and became prior in 1149. In 1153 he led a deputation to Rome to seek papal confirmation of the appointment of Hugh du Puiset as bishop of Durham (opposed by Henry Murdac, archbishop of York). On return from the successful mission-on which he obtained a forty-day indulgence for servants of St Cuthbert-Lawrence fell sick in a French town, and died there on 16 or 18 March 1154; some years later his body was returned to Durham for final burial. His death had been foretold by Godric of Finchale (according to Reginald of Coldingham), who told two Lawrences in his presence that neither would return to Durham. Some scholars, from John Leland onwards, confused the poet with this second Lawrence, who became first a monk at St Albans and later abbot of Westminster.
> > 
> > Lawrence of Durham's reputation rests on his extensive writings in verse and prose. He sent his prose life of the Irish St Brigit (printed in the Vitae sanctorum Hiberniae) to Ailred, whose father had sent a version (in a 'semi-barbarous' state) to Lawrence for revision. His most popular work, widely quoted in extracts, was the Hypognosticon. This is a verse epic, in nine books of 4684 hexameters, on the redemption of mankind; it is divided into the periods of natural law (ending at Moses), positive law (ending with Herod), and grace (to the present), and further subdivided into the six ages of the world and into temporal units based on faith (Abraham), hope (Daniel), and charity (Christ). It was based on the Bible and Josephus's Antiquitates Judaicae (of which a Latin text was available in Durham, possibly annotated by Lawrence); it is enlivened by many expansions and digressions; the final book, often dismissed (as in the Dictionary of National Biography) as 'miscellaneous religious pieces', is in fact a celebration of the benefits of the period of grace. Lawrence notes that his first draft was lost, but he restored it from memory in a month.
> > 
> > Three short poems by Lawrence are extant: Tempora nec sexum, a poem on man's fallen nature; Aura puer mulier, a rebuke to a friend for his fickleness; and a dramatic re-enactment, in rhythmical verse, of the resurrected Christ's appearance to the disciples. Lawrence also wrote five prose speeches, probably as school exercises to teach forensic oratory, though they seem to deal with real events: Laurentius pro Laurentio; Pro naufragis; Pro iuvenibus; Invectio in Malgerium; and Pro Milone. These have all been printed by U. Kindermann. The Consolatio de morte amici is a prosimetrum closely modelled on Boethius's Consolatio philosophiae, in which Lawrence is rebuked by a testy Consolator for his excessive grief.
> > 
> > From a modern point of view, Lawrence's most interesting work is his Dialogi, in four books of hexameters. It utilizes Lawrence's personal history and that of Durham as a model for the working of divine grace in human affairs. The first two books describe Lawrence's desolation at the treatment suffered by Durham at the hands of Cumin and his soldiers. The third book, set late in 1144, is about the divine grace that finally persuaded Cumin to desist and repent. The last book is about vice, virtue, God, and heaven. As its name indicates, the Dialogi is a series of conversations between three friends, Lawrence and Philip (monks) and Peter (a Breton); despite many classical allusions, they are delivered in an informal style, full of banter, jokes, and personal arguments, showing that God's grace operates not just in ancient history but among ordinary people who behave in ordinary ways.
> > 
> > Lawrence's only other claim to fame is that, because of a diatribe against love (in the Hypognosticon), he was chosen as one of the three 'angels' sent to dissuade Gawain from marriage, in the satirical poem De coniuge non ducenda, written shortly after 1222.
> > 
> > A. G. Rigg 
> > 
> > Sources M. L. Mistretta, ed., 'The "Hypognosticon" of Lawrence of Durham: a preliminary text with an introduction', PhD diss., Fordham University, New York, 1941 + Dialogi Laurentii Dunelmensis monachi ac prioris, ed. J. Raine, SurtS, 70 (1880) + U. Kindermann, ed., Consolatio de morte amici (1969) + W. W. Heist, ed., Vitae sanctorum Hiberniae ex codice olim Salmanticensi nunc Bruxellensi, Subsidia Hagiographica, 28 (Brussels, 1965), 1-37 + A. G. Rigg, A history of Anglo-Latin literature, 1066-1422 (1992), 54-61 + D. Knowles, C. N. L. Brooke, and V. C. M. London, eds., The heads of religious houses, England and Wales, 1: 940-1216 (1972), 43 + U. Kindermann, 'Das Emmausgedicht des Laurentius von Durham', Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch, 5 (1968), 79-100 + U. Kindermann, 'Die funf Reden des Laurentius von Durham', Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch, 8 (1973), 108-41 + Gaufridus de Coldingham [Geoffrey of Coldingham], 'De statu ecclesiae Dunhelmensis', in Historiae Dunelmensis scriptores tres: Gaufridus de Coldingham, Robertus de Graystanes, et Willielmus de Chambre, ed. J. Raine, SurtS, 9 (1839), 3-31 + Reginald of Durham, Libellus de vita et miraculis S. Godrici, heremitae de Finchale, ed. J. Stevenson, SurtS, 20 (1847), 232-3 + A. G. Rigg, ed., Gawain on marriage: the textual tradition of the 'De coniuge non ducenda' (1986) + A. Hoste, 'A survey of the unedited work of Lawrence of Durham, with an edition of his letter to Aelred', Sacris Erudiri, 11 (1960), 249-65
> > Likenesses illuminated miniature, U. Durham L., Cosin MS V.iii.l, fol. 22v [see illus.]
> >

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