# Tatwine

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{{Short description|Archbishop of Canterbury from 731 to 734, Christian saint}}
{{Good article}}
{{Use British English|date=July 2022}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2024}}
{{Infobox Christian leader
| name = Tatwine
| title = [Archbishop of Canterbury](/source/Archbishop_of_Canterbury)
| image = Riddles of Tatwine, London, British Library, Royal MA 12 c xxiii folio 121v.png
| imagesize =
| alt =
| caption = Riddles of Tatwine, London, British Library, Royal MA 12 c xxiii folio 121v, showing Tatwine's riddles on philosophy and on faith, hope, and charity following on from the [riddles of Eusebius](/source/riddles_of_Eusebius)
| appointed = 731
| ended = 30 July 734
| predecessor = [Berhtwald](/source/Berhtwald)
| successor = [Nothhelm](/source/Nothhelm)
| consecration = 10 June 731
| other_post = Abbot of Breedon-on-the-Hill
| birth_date = {{circa|670|lk=yes}}
| death_date = 30 July 734
<!----------Sainthood---------->| feast_day = 30 July
| venerated = {{Ubl
  | [Catholic Church](/source/Catholic_Church)<ref name=ODS492/>
  | [Eastern Orthodox Church](/source/Eastern_Orthodox_Church)<ref name=Hutchinson-Hall82>Hutchison-Hall ''Orthodox Saints of the British Isles'' p. 81</ref>
  }}
| canonized_date = [Pre-Congregation](/source/Pre-Congregation)
| honorific_prefix = [Saint](/source/Saint)
}}

'''Tatwine'''{{Efn|Sometimes '''Tatwin''', '''Tatuini''', or '''{{Lang|la|Tadwinus}}'''<ref name=ODS492>Farmer ''Oxford Dictionary of Saints'' pp. 492–493</ref>}} ({{circa|670|lk=yes}} – 30 July 734) was the tenth [Archbishop of Canterbury](/source/Archbishop_of_Canterbury) from 731 to 734. Prior to becoming archbishop, he was a monk and abbot of a Benedictine monastery. Besides his ecclesiastical career, Tatwine was a writer, and riddles he composed survive. Another work he composed was on the [grammar](/source/Latin_grammar) of the [Latin language](/source/Latin), which was aimed at advanced students of that language.  He was subsequently considered a [saint](/source/saint).

==Biography==
Tatwine was a [Mercia](/source/Mercia)n by birth.<ref name=Brooks80/> His epigraph at Canterbury stated that when he died he was in old age, so perhaps he was born around 670.<ref name=DNB/> He became a monk at the monastery at [Breedon-on-the-Hill](/source/Breedon-on-the-Hill) in the present-day County of [Leicestershire](/source/Leicestershire),<ref name=Brooks80>Brooks ''Early History of the Church of Canterbury'' p. 80</ref><ref name=Yorke31>Yorke ''Kings and Kingdoms'' p. 31</ref> and then [abbot](/source/abbot) of that house.<ref name=ASE183>Stenton ''Anglo-Saxon England'' p. 183</ref> Through the influence of King [Æthelbald](/source/%C3%86thelbald_of_Mercia) he was appointed as Archbishop of Canterbury in 731 and was consecrated on 10 June 731.<ref name=Handbook213>Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 213</ref><ref name=Kirby113>Kirby ''Earliest English Kings'' p. 113</ref> He was one of a number of Mercians who were appointed to Canterbury during the 730s and 740s.<ref name=Kingship24>Williams ''Kingship and Government'' p. 24</ref> Apart from his consecration of the Bishops of [Lindsey](/source/bishop_of_Lindsey) and [Selsey](/source/bishop_of_Selsey) in 733, Tatwine's period as archbishop appears to have been uneventful.<ref name=DNB/> He died in office on 30 July 734.<ref name=Handbook213/> Later considered a saint, his [feast day](/source/feast_day) is 30 July.<ref name=DictSaints>Walsh ''New Dictionary of Saints'' p. 571</ref>

==Writings==
[Bede](/source/Bede)'s commentary on Tatwine calls him a "{{lang|la|vir religione et Prudentia insignis, sacris quoque literis nobiliter instructus}}" (a man notable for his prudence, devotion and learning). These qualities were displayed in the two surviving manuscripts of his [riddles](/source/Anglo-Saxon_riddles) and four of his {{lang|la|Ars Gramattica Tatuini}}.<ref name=DNB/><ref name=Law281>Law "Transmission" ''Revue d'Histoire des Textes'' p. 281</ref>

===''Ars Gramattica Tatuini''===
The {{lang|la|Ars}} is one of only two surviving eighth-century Latin grammars from England.<ref name=Law281/> The grammar is a reworking of [Donatus](/source/Aelius_Donatus)'s {{lang|la|Ars Minor}} with the addition of information drawn from other grammarians, such as [Priscian](/source/Priscian) and [Consentius](/source/Consentius).{{citation needed|date=September 2021}} It was not designed for a newcomer to the Latin language, but rather for more advanced students.<ref name=Brooks98>Brooks ''Early History of the Church of Canterbury'' pp. 98–99</ref> It covers the eight [parts of speech](/source/parts_of_speech) through illustrations drawn from [classical scholars](/source/Classical_Latin), although not directly but through other grammatical works. There are also some examples drawn from the [Psalms](/source/Psalms). The work was completed before Tatwine became archbishop, and was used not only in England but also on the Continent.<ref name=Blair246>Blair ''World of Bede'' pp. 246–247</ref>

===Riddles===
It is almost certain that Tatwine was inspired to develop the culture of [riddle-writing in early medieval England](/source/Anglo-Saxon_riddles) because he had read the {{lang|la|[Epistola ad Acircium](/source/Epistola_ad_Acircium)}} by the West-Saxon scholar [Aldhelm](/source/Aldhelm) (d. 709), which combined studies of Latin grammar and metre with the presentation of one hundred hexametrical riddles.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Salvador-Bello|title=Isidorean Perceptions of Order|pages=222}}</ref> Frederick Tupper believed that Aldhelm's influence was minimal,<ref>Tupper ''Riddles of the Exeter Book'' p. xxxiv</ref> but subsequent scholars have argued that Tatwine's riddles owed a substantial debt to those of Aldhelm.<ref>Lapidge ''Aldhelm: The Poetic Works'' p. 66</ref><ref>Orchard ''Poetic Art of Aldhelm'' p. 242</ref><ref>Salvador-Bello ''Isidorean Perceptions of Order'' pp. 222–224</ref>

Tatwine's riddles deal with such diverse topics as philosophy and charity, the five senses and the alphabet, and a book, and a pen,<ref name=DNB>Lapidge "Tatwine" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''</ref> yet, according to Mercedes Salvador-Bello, these riddles are placed in a carefully structured sequence: 1–3 and 21–26 on theology (e.g. 2, faith, hope, and charity), 4–14 on objects associated with ecclesiastical life (e.g. 7, a bell), 15–20 on wonders and monsters (e.g. 16, prepositions with two cases), 27–39 on tools and related natural phenomena (e.g. 28, an anvil, and 33, fire), with a final piece on the sun's rays.<ref>Salvador-Bello ''Patterns of Compilation'' ''Viator'' pp. 346–349, 373</ref><ref name=DNB/>

Tatwine's riddles survive in two manuscripts: the early 11th-century London, British Library, Royal 12.Cxxiii (fols. 121v–7r) and the mid-11th-century Cambridge, University Library, Gg.5.35 (fols. 374v–77v).<ref>Salvador-Bello ''Isidorean Perceptions of Order'' p. 221</ref> In both manuscripts, they are written alongside the [riddles of Eusebius](/source/riddles_of_Eusebius): it seems clear that Eusebius (whose identity is uncertain) added sixty riddles to Tatwine's forty to take the collection up to one hundred.<ref>Williams ''Riddles of Tatwine and Eusebius'' pp. 44–57</ref>

Tatwine gives a sign in one of the riddles of the growing acceptance among scholars in the Christian west of the legitimacy of philosophy: "{{lang|la|De philosophia: est felix mea qui poterit cognoscere iura}}" (Of Philosophy: happy is he who can know my laws).<ref>Naismith "Antiquity, Authority, and Religion" ''Peritia'' p. 66</ref> The riddles are formed in [acrostic](/source/acrostic)s.<ref name=ASE>Lapidge "Tatwine" ''Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England''</ref>

====Example====
An example of Tatwine's work is enigma 11, on the needle:<ref>Tatwine ''Tatuini omnia opera'' p. 178</ref>
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
|+ Enigma 11
!scope="col"| Latin original
!scope="col"| English translation
|-
!scope="row"| <poem>{{lang|la|Torrens me genuit fornax de uiscere flammae,
Condi<t>or inualido et finxit me corpore luscam;
Sed constat nullum iam sine me uiuere posse.
Est mirum dictu, cludam ni lumina uultus,
Condere non artis penitus molimina possum.}}</poem>
| <poem>Brought forth in the fiery womb of a blazing furnace,
my maker formed me one-eyed and frail;
yet surely none could ever live without me.
Strange to say, unless my eye is blinded,
my skill produces not the smallest piece of work.</poem>
|}

====List====
Tatwine's riddles are on the following topics.<ref>Tatwine ''Tatuini omnia opera''</ref>
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible"
|+ class="nowrap"| Numbered list of Tatwine's riddles
!scope="col"| Number
!scope="col"| Latin title
!scope="col"| English translation
|-
!scope="row"| 1
| {{lang|la|de philosophia}}
| philosophy
|-
!scope="row"| 2
| {{lang|la|de spe, fide (et) caritate}}
| hope, faith (and) charity
|-
!scope="row"| 3
| {{lang|la|de historia et sensu et morali et allegoria}}
| historical, spiritual, moral, and allegorical sense
|-
!scope="row"| 4
| {{lang|la|de litteris}}
| letters
|-
!scope="row"| 5
| {{lang|la|de membrano}}
| parchment
|-
!scope="row"| 6
| {{lang|la|de penna}}
| pen
|-
!scope="row"| 7
| {{lang|la|de tinti(n)no}}
| bell
|-
!scope="row"| 8
| {{lang|la|de ara}}
| altar
|-
!scope="row"| 9
| {{lang|la|de cruce Xristi}}
| Christ's cross
|-
!scope="row"| 10
| {{lang|la|de recitabulo}}
| lectern
|-
!scope="row"| 11
| {{lang|la|de acu}}
| needle
|-
!scope="row"| 12
| {{lang|la|de patena}}
| paten
|-
!scope="row"| 13
| {{lang|la|de acu pictili}}
| embroidery needle
|-
!scope="row"| 14
| {{lang|la|de caritate}}
| love
|-
!scope="row"| 15
| {{lang|la|de niue, grandine et glacie}}
| snow, hail and ice
|-
!scope="row"| 16
| {{lang|la|de pr(a)epositione utriusque casus}}
| prepositions with two cases
|-
!scope="row"| 17
| {{lang|la|de sciuro}}
| squirrel
|-
!scope="row"| 18
| {{lang|la|de oculis}}
| eyes
|-
!scope="row"| 19
| {{lang|la|de strabis oculis}}
| squinting eyes
|-
!scope="row"| 20
| {{lang|la|de lusco}}
| the one-eyed
|-
!scope="row"| 21
| {{lang|la|de malo}}
| evil
|-
!scope="row"| 22
| {{lang|la|de Adam}}
| Adam
|-
!scope="row"| 23
| {{lang|la|de trina morte}}
| threefold death
|-
!scope="row"| 24
| {{lang|la|de humilitate}}
| humility
|-
!scope="row"| 25
| {{lang|la|de superbia}}
| pride
|-
!scope="row"| 26
| {{lang|la|de quinque sensibus}}
| the five senses
|-
!scope="row"| 27
| {{lang|la|de forcipe}}
| a pair of tongs
|-
!scope="row"| 28
| {{lang|la|de incude}}
| anvil
|-
!scope="row"| 29
| {{lang|la|de mensa}}
| table
|-
!scope="row"| 30
| {{lang|la|de ense et uagina}}
| sword and sheath
|-
!scope="row"| 31
| {{lang|la|de scintilla}}
| spark
|-
!scope="row"| 32
| {{lang|la|de sagitta}}
| arrow
|-
!scope="row"| 33
| {{lang|la|de igne}}
| fire
|-
!scope="row"| 34
| {{lang|la|de faretra}}
| quiver
|-
!scope="row"| 35
| {{lang|la|de pru(i)na}}
| ember
|-
!scope="row"| 36
| {{lang|la|de uentilabro}}
| winnowing fork
|-
!scope="row"| 37
| {{lang|la|de seminante}}
| sower
|-
!scope="row"| 38
| {{lang|la|de carbone}}
| charcoal
|-
!scope="row"| 39
| {{lang|la|de coticulo}}
| whetstone
|-
!scope="row"| 40
| {{lang|la|de radiis solis}}
| rays of the sun
|}

==Editions and translations==
* 'Aenigmata Tatvini', ed. by Fr. Glorie, trans. by Erika von Erhardt-Seebold, in ''Tatuini omnia opera, Variae collectiones aenigmatum merovingicae aetatis, Anonymus de dubiis nominibus'', Corpus christianorum: series latina, 133–133a, 2 vols (Turnholt: Brepols, 1968).

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==Citations==
{{reflist|40em}}

==References==
{{refbegin|60em}}
* {{cite book |author1=Aldhelm |author2=Lapidge, Michael |author3=Rosier, James |title=Aldhelm: The Poetic Works |author2-link=Michael Lapidge |publisher=D.S. Brewer |year=2009 |isbn=9781843841982 |location=Woodbridge, UK }}
* {{cite book |author=Blair, Peter Hunter |title=The World of Bede |author-link=Peter Hunter Blair |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge, UK |year=1990 |edition=Reprint |orig-year=1970 |isbn=0-521-39819-3 }}
* {{cite book |author=Brooks, Nicholas |title=The Early History of the Church of Canterbury: Christ Church from 597 to 1066 |author-link=Nicholas Brooks (historian) |publisher=Leicester University Press |location=London |year=1984 |isbn=0-7185-0041-5 }}
* {{cite book| author=Farmer, David Hugh |title=Oxford Dictionary of Saints |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2004 |edition=Fifth |location=Oxford, UK |isbn=978-0-19-860949-0 }}
* {{cite book |author1=Fryde, E. B. |author2=Greenway, D. E. |author3=Porter, S. |author4=Roy, I. |title=Handbook of British Chronology |author1-link=Edmund Fryde |author2-link=Diana Greenway |edition=Third revised |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge, UK |year=1996 |isbn=0-521-56350-X }}
* {{cite book |author=Kirby, D. P. |title=The Earliest English Kings |author-link=David Peter Kirby |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |year=2000 |isbn=0-415-24211-8 }}
* {{cite book |author=Hutchison-Hall, John |title=Orthodox Saints of the British Isles: Volume III, July–September |publisher=St. Eadfrith Press |date=2014 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t5MSBgAAQBAJ |isbn=978-0-692-25766-1 }}
* {{cite encyclopedia |author=Lapidge, Michael |title=Tatwine |page=440 |encyclopedia=The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England |author-link=Michael Lapidge |editor1=Lapidge, Michael |editor1-link=Michael Lapidge |editor2=Blair, John |editor2-link=John Blair (historian) |editor3=Keynes, Simon |editor-link3=Simon Keynes |editor4=Scragg, Donald |year=2001 |publisher=Blackwell Publishing |location=Malden, MA |isbn=978-0-631-22492-1  }}
* {{cite encyclopedia |author=Lapidge, Michael |title=Tatwine (d. 734) |encyclopedia=[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography](/source/Oxford_Dictionary_of_National_Biography) |author-link=Michael Lapidge |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2004 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/26998 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/26998 |access-date=7 November 2007 |url-access=subscription }} {{ODNBsub}}
* {{cite journal |author=Law, V. |title=The Transmission of the Ars Bonifacii and the Ars Tatuini |journal=Revue d'Histoire des Textes |author-link=Vivien Law |volume=9 |issue=1979 |year=1979 |pages=281–288 |doi=10.3406/rht.1980.1206 }}
* {{cite journal |author=Naismith, Rory |title=Antiquity, Authority, and Religion in the Epitomae and Epistolae of Virgilius Maro Grammaticus |journal=[Peritia](/source/Peritia) |author-link=Rory Naismith |volume=20 |date=2008 |pages=59-85 |doi=10.1484/J.Peri.3.626 }}
* {{cite book |author=Orchard, Andy |title=The Poetic Art of Aldhelm |author-link=Andy Orchard |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1994 |isbn=9780521034579 |location=Cambridge, UK }}
* {{cite book |author=Salvador-Bello, Mercedes |title=Isidorean Perceptions of Order: The Exeter Book Riddles and Medieval Latin Enigmata |publisher=West Virginia University Press |year=2014 |isbn=9781935978527 |location=Morgantown, WV }}
* {{cite journal |author=Salvador-Bello, Mercedes |title=Patterns of Compilation in Anglo-Latin ''Enigmata'' and the Evidence of A Source-Collection in Riddles 1–40 of the ''Exeter Book'' |journal=[Viator](/source/Viator_(journal)) |volume=43 |date=2012 |pages=339–374 |doi=10.1484/J.VIATOR.1.102554 }}
* {{cite book |author=Stenton, F. M. |title=Anglo-Saxon England |author-link=Frank Stenton |year=1971 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford, UK |edition=Third |isbn=978-0-19-280139-5 }}
* {{cite book |author=Tatwine |title=Tatuini omnia opera, Variae collectiones aenigmatum merovingicae aetatis, Anonymus de dubiis nominibus |translator=von Erhardt-Seebold, Erika |series=Corpus christianorum: series latina |location=Turnholt |publisher=Brepols |date=1968 |url=https://archive.org/details/corpuschristiano0133unse }}
* {{cite book |author=Tupper, Frederick |title=The Riddles of the Exeter Book |publisher=Ginn |year=1910 |location=Boston }}
* {{cite book |author=Walsh, Michael J. |title=A New Dictionary of Saints: East and West |year=2007 |publisher=Burns & Oats |location=London |isbn=978-0-86012-438-2  }}
* {{cite book |author=Williams, Ann |title=Kingship and Government in Pre-Conquest England c. 500–1066 |author-link=Ann Williams (historian) |publisher=MacMillan Press |location=London |year=1999 |isbn=0-333-56797-8 }}
* {{cite thesis |author=Williams, Mary Jane McDonald |title=The Riddles of Tatwine and Eusebius |degree=PhD |year=1974 |location=University of Michigan }}
* {{cite book |author=Yorke, Barbara |title=Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England |author-link=Barbara Yorke |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |year=1997 |isbn=0-415-16639-X }}
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |author=Law, Vivien |title=The Latin and Old English glosses in the Ars Tatuini |encyclopedia=[Anglo-Saxon England](/source/Anglo-Saxon_England_(journal)) |volume=6 |author-link=Vivien Law |year=1977 |pages=77–89 }}
{{refend}}

==External links==
* {{PASE|19218|Tatwine 2}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-rel| [Christian](/source/Christianity) titles }}
{{s-bef | before=[Berhtwald](/source/Berhtwald) }}
{{s-ttl| title=[Archbishop of Canterbury](/source/Archbishop_of_Canterbury) | years=731–734}}
{{s-aft| after=[Nothhelm](/source/Nothhelm) }}
{{s-end}}

{{Archbishops of Canterbury}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tatwine}}
Category:670s births
Category:734 deaths
Category:8th-century archbishops
Category:8th-century English writers
Category:8th-century writers in Latin
Category:Archbishops of Canterbury
Category:Grammarians of Latin
Category:Linguists from England
Category:Medieval linguists
Category:Year of birth uncertain
Category:Medieval Latin-language poets

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Tatwine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatwine) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatwine?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.