L’Histoiregreco-Romainedans Les ‘Chroniques’ De Bede Le Venerable (De Temporibus CH. 17–22 Et De Temporum Ratione CH. 66–71)

Abstract

The purpose of the present paper is to study the way the Venerable Bede dealt with Graeco-Roman historical material when he wrote the two universal chronicles included in his chronological treatises (De temporibus and De temporum ratione). It firstly shows how he composed them, each time extracting a chronological framework from a single source. To this he added external informations, mainly related to Christian history – a subject interesting to his monastic audience. Like Claudius of Turin, Bede could have neglected classical history, principally pagan, but he did not. He mentions several events from the Graeco-Roman past, essentially used as chronological marks, or directly related to Christian and/or English history. Both chronicles show also his real interest in some particular secular events, like city foundations, or famous artists acme. This free curiosity remains however limited to the less pagan aspects of the classical culture, sometimes not perfectly mastered.