Bede and the Theory of Everything
Michelle P Brown, Reaktion, £16.95

Whilst not exactly a household name, born 1,300 years ago (673 AD) in the north of England, the Venerable Bede is probably the greatest scholar of the Anglo Saxon period, most famous for his book, the Ecclesiastical History of the English People, and hence regarded as the father of English history.  

Ecclesiastical History starts with the Roman invasion of Britain, covers 800 years of British history, explores political and social life together with the rise of the early Christian church. It remains an important source both of facts, and for what early Anglo Saxon life was like. 

But Bede also wrote on a large number of other subjects, science, music, poetry, biblical commentary. One of his early works, On the Nature of Things, is a collection of contemporary theories that includes cosmology, time and arithmetic, and later, Bede calculated the first tide tables and calendar dates.  

Unlike most of his contemporaries, Bede did not believe the world was flat. He used science, natural light, shadows, the change in hours of night and day, to conclude that the earth was a sphere. 

Education and literacy was rare in early medieval England. Being a Benedictine monk at St Paul’s Monastery, Jarrow, meant Bede had access to a library boasting some 7,000 books — further proof that we need to keep all our present day libraries up and running! 

A natural polymath, Bede was also a tough character and was lucky enough to survive the plague of 686, one which killed the majority of the population of Jarrow.

Michelle Brown, former curator of illuminated manuscripts at the British Library and an authority on the period, has written an accessible and enjoyable book that brings together the many intriguing aspects of Bede — wisdom, intellect, how he influenced contemporary thinking, some of which is still with us today. 

Boyhood, background, life as a monk, priest, scholar, scientist, critical thinker, Lindisfarne and Bede’s legacy are all explored in this hugely readable book. 

Bede demonstrated there may be a literal memory of an object, but to understand nature, you need to peel away layers and engage with the many possible and differing interpretations. 

As an example, Michelle Brown suggests that an onion may, to the naked eye, look like an onion, but you don’t know what it is until you bite it and fathom its pros and cons, be it food, flavouring, medicine or pigments for creating colours. 

It’s clear that Bede treats much of Biblical text, which he translated from the Latin source, as symbolic of deeper meanings, but used critical judgement to rationalise the discrepancies and inconsistencies that he found. As an influential “scholar scientist,” he combined both the Christian and the secular in his writings, honoured differences, and tried to promote harmony.  

Bede was a remarkable man. Michelle Brown’s book demonstrates this. Writing in vibrant, accessible prose, we are taken back to English society as it was 1,300 years ago, the huge contribution the Venerable Bede made to the arts, critical thinking and the recording of history, as well as the everyday life he was part of. 

If you are interested in early English history plus life in medieval Britain, this is the book for you.