bjem@unimelb.edu.au
Bernard Muir was born in Toronto in 1951. He is currently Reader and Associate Professor in the English Department, where he has taught medieval literature since 1982; his area of specialization is the literature (Latin and vernacular) and culture of Anglo-Saxon England.
He graduated from the University of Toronto where he completed his tertiary training, taking out a BA (Hons.) in English and Latin (1973) and an MA (1974) and PhD (1981) in Medieval Studies. He was also awarded a Licentiate in Mediaeval Studies by the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies (Toronto, 1976).
He trained principally in medieval Germanic languages (Old and Middle English, Gothic, Old Frisian, Old Norse), Latin literature, hagiography and devotional literature, paleography and codicology.
He has published scholarly editions of both Latin and Old English texts; he is best known for his edition of The Exeter Anthology of Old English Poetry and for his earlier reconstruction of an eleventh-century devotional text that was badly damaged in the Cotton Library fire of 1731 (see below for bibliographical details). He published (with Andrew J Turner) a new edition of Edmer of Canterbury's Vita Sancti Wilfridi, which was published in 1988 by University of Exeter Press, and has recently completed an edition of Edmer's vitae of the tenth-century (arch/)bishops Oda, Oswald and Dunstan (also with Andrew J Turner); this second volume will be published by Oxford University Press in 2003/4. He has also edited three volumes of essays on medieval art history, two of these with Margaret M Manion.
The picture above shows Bernard in his office at the University of Melbourne; in front of him are the 1933 facsimile of the Exeter MS and the 47 CDs onto which the digital images of Exeter D&C MS 3501 were burnt for transport back to Australia, 28 gigabytes of information for the one manuscript, an invaluable resource for future generations of paleographers and literary critics. These images have been used to produce the new Electronic Exeter Anthology of Old English Poetry, which will replace the 1933 facsimile by Chambers, et al. (which appeared in a very limited print run).
In addition to offering online courses in Latin paleography, he currently offers the following subjects at the University of Melbourne:
- Introduction to Old English (A) (106-024),
- Introduction to Old English (B) (106-029),
- Beowulf (106-013),
- The Exeter Anthology (106-405),
- Backgrounds to English Literature (106-015),
- Medieval Latin Paleography (106-467).
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Selected Publications
- Muir, Bernard J., ed. Reading Texts and Images: Essays on Medieval and Renaissance Art and Patronage. University of Exeter Press, 2002.
- Muir, Bernard J. Ductus: Digital Latin Paleography. Melbourne, 2000; revised 2002. Ductus is a program for teaching Latin paleography and codicology either locally or remotely via the web. Ductus is a hybrid CD-ROM, playable on both Macs and PCs; for information about the program and the pricing of individual copies and site licences see the Evellum homepage.
- Muir, Bernard J., ed. The Exeter Anthology of Old English Poetry. 2 Vols. Exeter, 1994; revised and enlarged 2nd edition, 2000.
- Muir, Bernard J., and Margaret M. Manion, eds. The Art of the Book: Its Place in Medieval Worship. University of Exeter Press, 1998.
- Muir, Bernard J., and Andrew J. Turner. Life of Saint Wilfrid. (Exeter, 1998). A picture of the crypt built by Wilfrid at Ripon.
- Muir, Bernard J., and Andrew J. Turner. A digital edition with facsimile, translation, historical introduction and commentary of Edmer of Canterbury's Life of Saint Wilfrid. Please contact Bernard Muir for more information about the availability of this CD-ROM.
- Muir, Bernard J. A Pre-Conquest English Prayer-book (BL MSS Cotton Galba A.xiv and Nero A.ii, folios 3-13). The Henry Bradshaw Society Vol. 103. London, 1988.
- Muir, Bernard J. Leoth: Six Old English Poems. New York, 1989.
- Muir, Bernard J., and Margaret M. Manion, eds. Medieval Texts and Images. Craftsman House, Sydney, 1991.
- Muir, Bernard J. Ductus: Digital Latin Paleography. Melbourne, 2000; revised 2002. Ductus is a program for teaching Latin paleography and codicology either locally or remotely via the web. Ductus is a hybrid CD-ROM, playable on both Macs and PCs; for information about the program and the pricing of individual copies and site licences see the Evellum homepage.
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Current Multimedia Projects
- The Electronic Exeter Anthology of Old English Poetry: a revised second edition of the 1994 publication (in both electronic and hard copy), including a new digitized facsimile of Exeter, Dean and Chapter, MS 3501. Available 2003. See the Evellum homepage for more details.
- An Electronic Facsimile Edition of Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Junius 11 (the 'Caedmon Manuscript'). Available 2003. See the Evellum homepage for more details.
- Calligraphy: the Art of Writing Well. Available 2003.
- An Electronic Facsimile Edition of Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Junius 11 (the 'Caedmon Manuscript'). Available 2003. See the Evellum homepage for more details.
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Current Research
- A monograph study of the significance of corrections and other alterations in tenth- and eleventh-century manuscripts containing Anglo-Saxon poetic texts.