ABSTRACT
Bede spent his life in the pursuit of learning. Born somewhere in the region of the monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow in the kingdom of Northumbria in north-eastern Britain, he was given by his relatives into the care of that monastery at the age of seven. Bede lived and worked in the twin-monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow in the kingdom of Northumbria. Wearmouth, founded in 674 by Benedict Biscop, and Jarrow, founded in 681 or 682 by Ceolfrith, had been brought together in the late seventh century under Biscop and Ceolfrith’s co-abbacy. Most importantly for Bede’s intellectual development, Biscop and Ceolfrith had left the twin-monastery with an impressive library, gathered, so Bede wrote, over the course of their many trips to Rome. Classical knowledge about nature and the cosmos was transmitted to the middle ages through a small number of texts.
