Letter to Acircius (with On Metres and On the Rules of Feet)
Epistola ad Acircium (with De metris and De pedum regulis)
· Aldhelm of Malmesbury
· c. 685-690
· treatise
Latin · domain: latin-insular · researched 2026-11-14
partial / older only. An English translation exists but is partial or older than the critical edition. The gap is a modern, complete translation from the original. A rendering of a daughter version does not count here: it is recorded on the dossier of the text it actually translates.
Why this is in the register
The standard English collection, Aldhelm: The Prose Works, translated by Michael Lapidge and Michael Herren (Brewer, 1979; paperback 2009; https://hollis.harvard.edu/discovery/search?query=any,contains,Aldhelm%20the%20prose%20works&tab=Everything&search_scope=MyInst_and_CI&vid=01HVD_INST:HVD2&offset=0 carries the Epistola ad Acircium only in selection: the catalogue's contents note reads 'Selections from Epistola ad Acircium' alongside 'The prose part of De virginitate' and 'Letters'. The metrical treatise that the letter transmits - De metris and De pedum regulis, with Aldhelm's 100 riddles embedded in it - is therefore not available complete in English. The Latin text is printed in Migne PL 89, where I confirmed the heading 'EPISTOLA AD ACIRCIUM' in the scan (https://archive.org/details/patrologiaecursu0089mign).
The Epistola ad Acircium is Aldhelm's treatise on Latin metre, written for a Northumbrian king and the most ambitious metrical handbook produced in early England; the riddles it contains are among the founding texts of the Anglo-Latin riddle tradition. Because the translation is selective, the technical argument about feet, syllables and quantity - the part that made the work useful to teachers - is cut.
Dempsey, G. T. (George T.). "Aldhelm of Malmesbury and the ending of late antiquity." Turnhout, Belgium : Brepols Publishers, [2015]. https://hollis.harvard.edu/permalink/f/1s5nto6/990144999610203941
"Aldhelm and Sherborne : essays to celebrate the founding of the bishopric." Oxford : Oxbow Books ; Oakville, CT : Distributed in the USA by David Brown, c2010. https://hollis.harvard.edu/permalink/f/1s5nto6/990126009300203941
James, M. R. (Montague Rhodes), 1862-1936 · 1931 · eng
James, M. R. (Montague Rhodes), 1862-1936. "Two ancient English scholars, St. Aldhelm & William of Malmesbury. Being the first lecture on the David Murray foundation in the University of Glasgow, delivered on June 9th, 1931." Glasgow, Jackson, Wylie & co., 1931. https://hollis.harvard.edu/permalink/f/1s5nto6/990040731…
Walcott, Mackenzie E. C. (Mackenzie Edward Charles), 1821-1880 · 1897 · eng
Walcott, Mackenzie E. C. (Mackenzie Edward Charles), 1821-1880. "The mitred Benedictine Abbey of S. Aldhelm, Malmesbury; a guide-memoir." Malmesbury, Jones, 1897. https://hollis.harvard.edu/permalink/f/1s5nto6/990055553530203941
Cite: Tergwame, “Letter to Acircius (with On Metres and On the Rules of Feet)”
(latin gap dossier), 2026.
https://naxiai.com/christian/gaps/latin-aldhelm-epistola-ad-acircium