Customer Reviews

Leechdoms, Wortcunning and Starcraft

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Potential purchasers attracted by the title "Leechdoms, Wortcunning, Starcraft," which may sound very New Age, should be aware that the date given for the book refers to a modern reprinting of one of the monuments of nineteenth-century Anglo-Saxon studies. Old English manuscripts concerning what would later become such sciences as medicine, botany, and astronomy are assembled in what was, by the standards of the day, a very creditable edition.

Although the book as a whole has never been replaced, and retains its value for major collections and academic libraries, those who need this information should certainly begin somewhere else. Many sections (perhaps all) have been re-edited, some several times, and some have had fairly recent, rather good, translations.

{When this review was originally posted in September 2003, the book was actually available, but the Amazon entry was without the present, highly informative, editorial material describing the contents. I'm leaving it in place, as an independent view, despite the redundancy.}