J. A. Giles, “Complete works of Bede” – links to all the volumes

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Google books does not handle series of volumes very well.  It can require real determination and effort to locate the volumes of a series.  This afternoon I have had to do just this, in order to locate the 12 volumes of the 1843-4 edition of the works of the Venerable Bede.  These were edited by the Rev. John Allen Giles (“J. A. Giles”), whose Dictionary of National Biography entry is quite fun reading.  He was clearly rather an oddball, whose career was eccentric.  His works were written mainly for money, in great haste.

On 6 March 1855 Giles was tried at the Oxford spring assizes before Lord Campbell, on the charges of having entered in the marriage register book of Bampton parish church a marriage under date 3 Oct. 1854, which took place on the 5th, he having himself performed the ceremony out of canonical hours, soon after 6 a.m.; of having falsely entered that it was performed by license; and of having forged the mark of a witness who was not present.

He pleaded not guilty, but it was evident that he had committed the offence out of foolish good nature, in order to cover the frailty of one of his servants, whom he married to her lover, Richard Pratt, a shoemaker’s apprentice. Pratt’s master, one of Giles’s parishioners, instituted the proceedings.

Giles spoke on his own behalf, and declared that he had published 120 volumes. His bishop also spoke for him. He was found guilty, but strongly recommended to mercy. Lord Campbell sentenced him to a year’s imprisonment in Oxford Castle. His fate excited much commiseration in the university, and after three months’ imprisonment he was released by royal warrant on 4 June (Times, 7 March and 7 June 1855).

At that date the University of Oxford was primarily a training establishment for Anglican clergy.  No doubt the fellows of the university had a word, not out of any love for Mr Giles, but rather to ensure their own rights and liberties.  It does not seem that the episode was held against him, and he was appointed a couple of years later to a curacy.

In Gerald Bonner’s Church and Faith in the Patristic Tradition: Augustine, Pelagianism, and Early Christian Northumbria (1998), we read the following words about Mr G.’s editorial efforts.

I am going to discuss Bede’s commentary of the Apocalypse, and here I must warn you of a difficulty which at present confronts any student of Bede’s theological writings: the unsatisfactory character of our available texts. For most of these we have to rely upon the labours of the Rev. Dr. J. A. Giles, an indefatigable but undiscriminating editor, in whom energy was not tempered with discretion.

In a review of another of Giles’ ventures – his edition of the correspondence of Thomas Becket – the English historian E. A. Freeman observed, with the devastating candour of the Victorian reviewer: ‘We suppose we must allow the praises of zeal and research to a man who has edited, translated, and written more books than any other living English scholar. But really we can give him no other praise,’ and he went on to emphasise his point by remarking: ‘The Letters [of Becket] of course are invaluable; at least they will be when anyone shall be found to edit them decently.’[1]

It would be unkind to apply Freeman’s verdict to Giles’ edition of Bede without qualification. His edition – at least so far as the commentary on the Apocalypse is concerned – is sufficient for practical purposes. Unfortunately, for any detailed study of the text it is unsatisfactory, not only because it lacks any reference to original manuscripts, but also because no attempt is made to indicate the sources used by Bede, which would help us to estimate both the range of his reading and his personal contribution to the commentary. Giles’ edition appeared in 1844. It was reprinted by the Abbé Migne in 1850 in the Patrología Latina, and no one familiar with Migne’s editorial practice will suppose that Giles’ text underwent any particular improvement at his hands. The Migne edition, which is in effect Giles’, is the text most readily available today, and it is high time it was replaced.

Bonner indeed gives an example of Mr. G’s curious editing:

‘Bestiam sanctus Augustinus impiam civitatem, imaginem vero eius simulationem eius (avis [sic!] ed. Giles), fallaci imagine Christianos, characterem autem notam criminis interpretatur, quam adorari, et subiici ei, et consentiri, dicit’ PL xciii, 175 C.

While in Archaeologia Aeliana N.S. 16 (1894), p.82, we read a note on Bede’s Life of Cuthbert:

Patres Ecclesiae Anglicanae: Miscellaneous Works of Venerable Bede, ed. by Dr Giles (1843) VI, p. 357….

3. ibid IV, p. 202 No trust should be placed in the English translation added by Dr Giles.

But no doubt Mr. G. simply printed whatever some manuscript said, or seemed to say; and laboured nothing over the translation.  As you would, if you had to write for a living.

Here are the volumes of Giles’ The Complete Works of Venerable Bede, on Google Books:

The Giles volumes were reprinted in the Patrologia Latina volumes 90-95.  Thankfully most of this material has now been replaced by the Corpus Christianorum Series Latina volumes.

Volume 1 of Giles’ edition also contains the text of various medieval “Lives” of Bede, including BHL 1069, the “Vita Bedae” in the Scriptorium Press volume to which I referred a couple of days ago.  I don’t think that these have been edited since.  But more on that in my next post.

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