Jonas of Bobbio was an Italian monk, author, and abbot, active in Lombard Italy and Merovingian Gaul during the seventh century. He is best known as the author of the Life of Columbanus and His Disciples, one of the most important works of hagiography from the early medieval period, that charts the remarkable journey of the Irish exile and monastic founder, Columbanus (d. 615), through Western Europe, as well as the monastic movement initiated by him and his Frankish successors in the Merovingian kingdoms. In the years following Columbanus's death numerous new monasteries were built by his successors and their elite patrons in Francia that decisively transformed the inter-relationship between monasteries and secular authorities in the Early Middle Ages. Jonas also wrote two other, occasional works set in the late fifth and sixth centuries: the Life of John, the abbot and founder of the monastery of Reome in Burgundy, and the Life of Vedast, the first bishop of Arras and a contemporary of Clovis. Both works provide perspectives on how the past Gallic monastic tradition, the role of bishops, and the Christianization of the Franks were perceived in Jonas's time. Jonas's hagiography also provides important evidence for the reception of classical and late antique texts as well as the works of Gregory the Great and Gregory of Tours.This volume presents the first complete English translation of all of Jonas of Bobbio's saints' Lives with detailed notes and scholarly introduction that will be of value to all those interested in this period.

About the Author
Dr Alexander O'Hara is a Research Fellow of the Institut fur Mittelalterforschung in the Austrian Academy of Sciences and an Hon. Research Fellow of the School of History, University of St Andrews. Professor Ian Wood is Professor of Early Medieval History in the Institute for Medieval Studies at the University of Leeds. His research interests focus on the history and historiography of the early Middle Ages. Previous publications include Avitus of Vienne: Letters and Selected Prose (TTH, LUP, 2002).

Reviews
Reviews 'There is a richness to the material which O'Hara and Wood have done us a great service in making more accessible.'
Jamie Kreiner, The Medieval Review
'This book is a timely and meaningful contribution to the scholarship on Merovingian Gaul. It is important not only for its accessible translation of a large and difficult corpus of works set against a complicated historical and textual background, but also for its clear synthesis of current scholarship. Finally, it elegantly succeeds in navigating the "Irish" vs. "Frankish" controversy, which seems to have reawakened of late.'
Yaniv Fox, Speculum
'This very welcome new translation is also a highly sophisticated scholarly edition. It is particularly rich in bibliography, with an extensive listing of virtually all the secondary literature on Columban and his times.'
Terrence Kardong, American Benedictine Review
'This very welcome addition to Liverpool University Press's Translated Texts for Historians more than lives up to expectations for this esteemed book series [...] Alexander O'Hara and Ian Wood's volume will be an essential companion for its valuable introduction, detailed footnotes, half-dozen appendices, up-to-date bibliography, and, not least of all, high-quality translation of Jonas's often challenging Latin. [...] In sum, this is an important book, not only for the early medieval texts it makes available to a much wider potential readership but also for the exceptional scholarship that went into the presentation and translation of those texts.'
Westley Follett, Eolas: The Journal of the American Society of Irish Medieval Studies

'Whatever the final outcome of contemporary debates about Columbanus, 'Columbanian Monasticism', and the influence of the Irish in continental Europe in the early Middle Ages, this volume will provide invaluable evidence (for both sides!) for many years to come.'

Daibhi O Croinin, Early Medieval Europe

'The publication of an erudite, readable, and heavily annotated translation of Jonas of Bobbio's hagiographical corpus is a cause for celebration. Although one of the recognized classics of seventh-century hagiography, Jonas's Vita Columbani until now has not been available in an unabridged English translation, while the comparatively brief lives of John of Reome and Vedast appear for the very first time in English. [...] O'Hara and Wood thus have produced not only an invaluable teaching resource, but a significant contribution to the new wave of Columbanian studies.'
Gregory I. Halfond, The Mediaeval Journal



Book Information
ISBN 9781781381779
Author Alexander O'Hara
Format Paperback
Page Count 400
Imprint Liverpool University Press
Publisher Liverpool University Press