Preaching the converted : the style and rhetoric of the Vercelli Book Homilies / Samantha Zacher.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Locating the Vercelli Homilies: Their Place in the Book, and the Book in Its Place -- 2. Reinventing the Past: Originality and the Vercelli Homilies -- 3. Seeing Double: The Repetition of Themes and Text in the Vercelli Book -- 4. 'Where Are They Now?': The Sources and Techniques of Adaptation and Compilation in the Vercelli Book -- 5. 'Body and Soul' of the Vercelli Book: The Heart of the Corpus -- 6. 'For the Sake of Beauty and Utility': The Place of Figurative Language in the Vercelli Homilies -- 7. At a Crossroads: Generic Ambiguity in the Guthlac Narrative of the Vercelli Book -- 8. Conclusion: Rhetorical Models and Modes of Style -- Appendix 1. Contents of the Vercelli Homilies and Relevant Variant Texts -- Appendix 2. Divisions in the Vercelli Book.

"The Vercelli Book is one of the oldest surviving collections of Old English homilies and poems, compiled in England in the tenth century. Preaching the Converted provides a sustained literary analysis of the book's prose homilies and demonstrates that they employ rhetorical techniques commonly associated with vernacular verse. The study argues that the dazzling textual complexity of these homilies rivals the most accomplished examples of Old English poetry. Highlighting the use of word play, verbal and structural repetition, elaborate catalogues, and figurative language, Samantha Zacher's study of the Vercelli Book fills a gap in the history of English preaching by foregrounding the significance of these prose homilies as an intermediary form. Also analyzing the Latin and vernacular sources behind the Vercelli texts to reveal the theological and formal interests informing the collection as a whole, Preaching the Converted is a rigorous examination of Old English homiletic rhetoric and poetics."--Publisher description.

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