Aldhelm of Malmesbury has been described as 'the first English man of letters'. He was the first Germanic author to compose extensively in Latin metrical verse, and his Latin works were amongst the most influential in Anglo-Saxon England. Aldhelm can also be considered the best-read of Anglo-Saxon poets, in both senses of the phrase: he read most and was most read. In this first book-length study of Aldhelm's poetic art Andy Orchard traces the sources and models for Aldhelm's idiosyncratic style, as well as the nature and extent of his influence on later Anglo-Latin verse. Aldhelm's innovations in Latin verse technique are emphasized, in particular his special debt to the specific techniques of Old English vernacular verse.

"...I found Orchard's arguments persuasive and his lists of lexical localizations impressive....Orchard's statistical tables represent an amazing amount of old-fashioned reading and remembering, very much in keeping with what we know of Aldhelm's and his fellow poets' practices." Modern Philology

"Andy Orchard has written a penetrating, eloquent, and original volume on Aldhelm of Malmesbury's Latin poetry." Scott Gwara, Speculum