Anselm as Author: Publishing in the Late Eleventh Century

Abstract

In the summer of 1098, while Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, was in exile, staying at the mountain village of Sclavia in southern Italy, “insigne uolumen edidit quod Cur Deus homo intitulauit” (“he put out a remarkable book, which he entitled Cur Deus homo”). So Eadmer tells us, and it is tempting here, as in some other contexts, to say that Anselm published the treatise. This is one of the ordinary uses of the verb ēdere at all periods. To the biographer it was in some sense an event: at a certain time and place Anselm finished the work and made it public. Intention lay with the author. The difficult question is how Anselm did it. We know from his preface that