In the “dark ages” of Europe, people began reading silently to themselves, and a love of books and learning took hold, pioneered by Bede. An excerpt from The Edge of the World: A Cultural History of the North Sea and the Transformation of Europe.
Loving Books in a Dark Age
Michael Pye | Pegasus Books | August 20, 2015 | 8,498 words
Loving Books in a Dark Age
In the “dark ages” of Europe, people began reading silently to themselves, and a love of books and learning took hold, pioneered by Bede.
Michael Pye | The Edge of the World: A Cultural History of the North Sea and the Transformation of Europe | Pegasus Books | April 2015 | 31 minutes (8,498 words)
Below is a chapter excerpted from The Edge of the World, by Michael Pye, as recommended by Longreads contributing editor Dana Snitzky.
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There was nobody else alive, nobody who could read or preach or sing the service, except the abbot, Ceolfrith, and one bright boy: who was local, well-connected and about sixteen, and whose name was unusual. He was called Bede, and he wasn’t called ‘saint’ or ‘venerable’, not yet.
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