A lovely letter
When you publish history or anything else, you open yourself to anyone to respond. I have been lucky: most responses to my historical work have been friendly enough, though not always very comprehending. But this has been the first time that I have had a letter from someone who understood everything I was doing, and told me I was doing it well. It is a lovely feeling, and I want to record it.
Hello Fabio
>
>I discovered your work on History of Britain, 407-597 while trawling the net for some information on the cultural background and history of the continental Teutonic tribes from which the Anglo-saxons descended.
>Thank you, it made for a very absorbing evening. I think you unpack the implicit 'subtext' of the original sources with great delicacy and intelligence, and relate them to other sources reflecting the wider European context very convincingly. It's rare to come across a book of such thoroughgoing and rigorous scholarship that is also such a rattling good read.
>I was very struck by your application of Quellenforschung techniques. That description of your method is wonderfully apt - the last time I remember being so forcibly struck by a radical historical reappraisal was John Robinson's Redating the New Testament, and that was many more years ago than I care to remember :-(...
Hello Fabio
>
>I discovered your work on History of Britain, 407-597 while trawling the net for some information on the cultural background and history of the continental Teutonic tribes from which the Anglo-saxons descended.
>Thank you, it made for a very absorbing evening. I think you unpack the implicit 'subtext' of the original sources with great delicacy and intelligence, and relate them to other sources reflecting the wider European context very convincingly. It's rare to come across a book of such thoroughgoing and rigorous scholarship that is also such a rattling good read.
>I was very struck by your application of Quellenforschung techniques. That description of your method is wonderfully apt - the last time I remember being so forcibly struck by a radical historical reappraisal was John Robinson's Redating the New Testament, and that was many more years ago than I care to remember :-(...