Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People

[C T]

Hi SE folks! 

I was considering doing the Venerable Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecclesiastical_History_of_the_English_People)

From some cursory research, most well regarded public domain English translation seems to be this one.  There's 1000 footnotes :-O.

Would this be of interest to include in the corpus? It seems fairly notable as one of the first "histories" of England.

I'm not sure if I'm ready to take on something this large yet, but just wanted to get a sense if it would be good to include in the corpus.

If it's okay to do, I'll put it on my list of future projects and depending on where I'm at in the next month or so I'll let you know if I want to take it on (or if someone else has an interest feel free). Also if I can find a PD proof, I think this would just be a perfect cover--The Venerable Bede Translates John.

[David]

This reminded me of a brief but wonderful essay by R. W. Southern on Bede, the first item in his Medieval Humanism collection. Well worth a read (as is anything by Southern, as far as I'm concerned).

FWIW! David / Fife, UK

[C T]

Thanks David. I love this bit: "A library is an act of faith, and no one can tell what will come of it."

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[Alex Cabal]

Sure, you could work on that. Would be a lot of work!

On 4/25/26 4:40 PM, C T wrote:
> Hi SE folks!
>

> I was considering doing the Venerable Bede's /Ecclesiastical History of
> the English People/ ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
> Ecclesiastical_History_of_the_English_People <https://en.wikipedia.org/
> wiki/Ecclesiastical_History_of_the_English_People>)

>
> From some cursory research, most well regarded public domain English

> translation seems to be this one <https://www.gutenberg.org/
> files/38326/38326-h/38326-h.html>.  There's 1000 footnotes :-O.

>
> Would this be of interest to include in the corpus? It seems fairly
> notable as one of the first "histories" of England.
>
> I'm not sure if I'm ready to take on something this large yet, but just
> wanted to get a sense if it would be good to include in the corpus.
>
> If it's okay to do, I'll put it on my list of future projects and
> depending on where I'm at in the next month or so I'll let you know if I
> want to take it on (or if someone else has an interest feel free). Also

> if I can find a PD proof, I think this would just be a perfect cover--/
> The Venerable Bede Translates John./

> image.png
>
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> utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>.

[C T]

Ok, given that today is St. Bede's feast day, I'm going to get started on this. I'll send a repo when I get it ready. Expect a while to go by before I have it ready for review.

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[C T]

PG: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/38326/38326-h/38326-h.html

Scans: https://archive.org/details/ecclesiasticalhrevbedeuoft/mode/2up

Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecclesiastical_History_of_the_English_People

Github Repo: https://github.com/ConcaveTrillion/bede_ecclesiastical-history-of-the-english-people_a-m-sellar

Cover art PD Proof: https://archive.org/details/royalacademypict1902roya/page/26/mode/2up

The title of the painting is The Last Chapter.

I'll pull the cover image from here, and will crop accordingly:

 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/The_Last_Chapter_by_James_Doyle_Penrose.jpg

[Alex Cabal]

OK, David will manage with Emma reviewing.

David can you look at the cover art?

The PG transcription has a section of errata. You can just apply those
fixes directly instead of having the errata section.

On 6/8/26 12:45 PM, C T wrote:
> PG: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/38326/38326-h/38326-h.html <https://
> www.gutenberg.org/files/38326/38326-h/38326-h.html>
> Scans: https://archive.org/details/ecclesiasticalhrevbedeuoft/mode/2up
> <https://archive.org/details/ecclesiasticalhrevbedeuoft/mode/2up>
> Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
> Ecclesiastical_History_of_the_English_People <https://en.wikipedia.org/
> wiki/Ecclesiastical_History_of_the_English_People>
>
> Github Repo: https://github.com/ConcaveTrillion/bede_ecclesiastical-
> history-of-the-english-people_a-m-sellar <https://github.com/
> ConcaveTrillion/bede_ecclesiastical-history-of-the-english-people_a-m-
> sellar>

>
> Cover art PD Proof: https://archive.org/details/

> royalacademypict1902roya/page/26/mode/2up <https://archive.org/details/
> royalacademypict1902roya/page/26/mode/2up>
> The title of the painting is /The Last Chapter/.

>
> I'll pull the cover image from here, and will crop accordingly:
> https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/

> The_Last_Chapter_by_James_Doyle_Penrose.jpg <https://
> upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/
> The_Last_Chapter_by_James_Doyle_Penrose.jpg>

>
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, May 25, 2026 at 3:18 PM C T <concave...@gmail.com
> <mailto:concave...@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> Ok, given that today is St. Bede's feast day, I'm going to get
> started on this. I'll send a repo when I get it ready. Expect a
> while to go by before I have it ready for review.
>
> On Sun, Apr 26, 2026 at 3:59 PM 'Alex Cabal' via Standard Ebooks
> <standar...@googlegroups.com

> <mailto:standar...@googlegroups.com>> wrote:
>
> Sure, you could work on that. Would be a lot of work!
>
> On 4/25/26 4:40 PM, C T wrote:
> > Hi SE folks!
> >
> > I was considering doing the Venerable Bede's /Ecclesiastical
> History of
> > the English People/ ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/>
> > Ecclesiastical_History_of_the_English_People <https://
> en.wikipedia.org/ <https://en.wikipedia.org/>

> <mailto:standardebooks%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com>
> > <mailto:standardebook...@googlegroups.com
> <mailto:standardebooks%2Bunsu...@googlegroups.com>>.

> > To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/

> msgid/ <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/>
> > standardebooks/
> >
> CAN6PGGUQBDBuibNcWiJ7SrDba36jvCjRrr9nHXoN1xH9GyHV_g%40mail.gmail.com <http://40mail.gmail.com>
> > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/standardebooks/ <https://
> groups.google.com/d/msgid/standardebooks/>
> >
> CAN6PGGUQBDBuibNcWiJ7SrDba36jvCjRrr9nHXoN1xH9GyHV_g%40mail.gmail.com <http://40mail.gmail.com>?

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[C T]

Will do on the errata. 

David, here's the crop of the cover image that I was hoping to use.

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[David]

We've got a small issue with your chosen image and the PD Proof. It looks to me like there are both 1902 (the PD Proof) and 1906 (your image) versions of this painting. The 1902 one is also on Wikipedia, so we could go with that one. (They differ only in very fine details.)

The crop looks good (without the black border, of course), but you might want to give the levels of the 1902 version a small tweak, if you're happy to go with that one. Do let me know, and I'll get it added to the Artworks DB and assigned.

[C T]

OK. It appears that the other one might actually be a *reproduction* by one of those fine art poster sites, as I can't find any indication there was actually a 2nd painted in 1906. But yeah it seems like the reproducer added a bead to the Rosary on the bottom.

The Cambridge University Library has a small version posted on a website (from 2011): https://wwwe.lib.cam.ac.uk/CUL/exhibitions/KJV/lastcharpter.html and apparently they have (or had) the original then.

I've "upscaled" that one with a python upscaler ML model, so it'd fit the 1400x2100 reqs, and made a few adjustments with GIMP:

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[David]

That's great - the Cambridge one == the 1902 version(?). Among the several minor differences between 1902 and "1906", the most obvious (to my eye) is the brickwork in the window well. No matter! This looks good, and is now in the DB and assigned.

On Tuesday, 9 June 2026 at 11:53:46 UTC+1 CT wrote:

OK. It appears that the other one might actually be a *reproduction* by one of those fine art poster sites, as I can't find any indication there was actually a 2nd painted in 1906. But yeah it seems like the reproducer added a bead to the Rosary on the bottom.

The Cambridge University Library has a small version posted on a website (from 2011): https://wwwe.lib.cam.ac.uk/CUL/exhibitions/KJV/lastcharpter.html and apparently they have (or had) the original then.

I've "upscaled" that one with a python upscaler ML model, so it'd fit the 1400x2100 reqs, and made a few adjustments with GIMP:

. . .

[C T]

David, should I keep or cut the index? I thought generally we cut indexes since we have search functionality in ebooks.

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[David]

I'd say cut - I had a look, and it is just a traditional index, so surplus to requirements in an ebook, as you note.