Dating of Bede's Works

The majority of Bede's works carry no indication of date; for them the only fixed date is that of the list at the end of EH, i.e., 731. Some works do include or refer to specific dates, however, while others have comments establishing their order relative to other works. In this list, I have primarily followed Plummer, Baedae Opera, I, cxlv-clix ("On the Chronology of Bede's Writings"), where the evidence for dating is carefully set out; see also M. L. W. Laistner and H. H. King, A Hand-List of Bede Manuscripts (Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1943), passim. For the dating of In Genesim, see Jones's Introduction, CC 118a:vi-x.

691 x 703: De arte metrica; De schematibus et tropis
? 691 x 703: De orthographia ("possibly Bede's first work"--Laistner)
703: De temporibus
703 x 709: First version of In Genesim; first version of Expositio Actuum
703 x 709: In Apocalypsin
<705: Vita metrica Cuthberti (Laistner, 705 X 716)
708: Epistola ad Plegwinum...de Sex Aetatibus Saeculi
708 x 716 : Expositio Actuum Apostolorum (and Nomina regionum)
? 709 x 716 : In epistolas catholicas (In 1 Joannem was sent to Acca with Expositio)
709 x 716 : In Lucam
716: In primam partem Samuhelis
716 : De mansionibus filiorum Israel; De eo quod ait Isaias `Et claudentur' (Epistles to Acca)
>716: Historia Abbatum
>716: In Marcum
c. 720: Vita Sancti Cuthberti
c. 725: Edition of In Genesim in two books for Acca
c. 725: In Regum librum quaestiones XXX
<725: De ratione bissexti
<725: De natura rerum (Laistner, c. 703)
<725: De temporum ratione
725 x 731: Martyrology
725 x 731: Expanded edition of In Genesim in four books
725 x 731: In Ezram et Neemiam
?725 x 731: Retractatio in Actus Apostolorum
?<729: De tabernaculo
729 x 731: De templo
731: Epistola ad Albinum
731: Historia Ecclesiastica
734, Nov. 5: Epistola ad Ecgbertum

Before 731, but otherwise undated:

In Cantica Canticorum
In Canticum Habbacuc
Collectaneum from Augustine on the Pauline Epistles
Homeliae
Hymni
In librum beati Tobiae
De locis sanctis
Octo Quaestionum Liber
In Proverbia
Vita Sancti Anastasii
Vita Sancti Felicis

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This page last revised November 30, 1996.