The immediate example for the administrative use of writing for Alfred and other Anglo-Saxon leaders was the contemporary kingdom of the Franks, which had been created by Charlemagne. The Franks, as Rosamond McKitterick has written, "did much to consolidate their intellectual and cultural heritage of tradition from classical antiquity and the early Christian church" (165). The same can be said of Anglo-Saxon England, particularly in the time of Bede as well as of Alfred. Alfred's law code is a good example; its preface is rich in references to other texts and models, beginning with Mosaic law (Wormald 15-16, Frantzen, King Alfred 11-21).
Many of Alfred's texts include prefaces that discuss books and their importance from the perspective of conserving and perpetuating tradition. We have most of these documents in Alfred the Great. Read the preface to the Pastoral Care first, and list the ideas about the significance of books that predominate there. Compare them to the preface to the text known as the Soliloquies, which uses the image of the bee gathering honey to describe the author who collects important ideas from various works and brings them together.
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