Reconstructing Anglo-Saxon England in antiquarian writing, 1660-1735

grantor: University of TorontoThis dissertation considers the systematic rescue and evaluation of Saxon antiquities during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries by English antiquaries. With chapters on the pastime of manuscript fragment collecting, the recovery of the Old English language and lexicon, and coin-collecting, this thesis explores how antiquaries--deeply influenced by scientific empiricism--endeavored to reconstruct the fragmented past from its material and documentary remains. Although antiquaries have been the subject of numerous studies, both as a group and individually, few scholars have approached the topic of antiquarianism through the objects they studied. Antiquities, however, are what distinguished the antiquary from the historian; they are the vehicles by which these scholars demonstrated their affection for and dedication to things as opposed to words. Thus, looking both at the collections of historical artifacts compiled by individual antiquaries and their often massive works of synthetic scholarship, this thesis argues that antiquaries not only revolutionized notions of historical evidence, but engineered news ways of reading the silent evidence of artifacts or things in their engagement with antiquities. The final chapter, by contrast, examines the mythical legacy of King Alfred's reign to show how the scholarly attention to evidence and proof characterizing this period was occasionally subordinated to political agendas. Looking, in particular, at an eighteenth-century court case which depended on establishing a detail in the life of this Saxon king, it demonstrates that--faced with current controversy and personal politics--even antiquaries sometimes succumbed to the allure of historical fictions. While contributing to discussions of the links between antiquarianism and experimental science, the rise of Old English scholarship, and the culture of collecting at this period, this thesis also situates the scholarly recovery of the Saxon tongue and culture within its religious and political contexts.Ph.D