Bede was the most accomplished author of the golden age of Northumbrian monasticism in the first half of the eighth century. The details of his life known to us mostly derive from the biobibliography that he appended to the Historia Ecclesiastica (V.24, ed. & trans. Colgrave & Mynors 1969). Here, he reveals his purpose in writing. From seven years of age, he passed each day in the precinct of the monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow, applying all his diligence to the study of scripture (omnem meditandis Scripturis operam dedi). Moreover, from the age of thirty to fifty nine, he undertook to compile short extracts from the church fathers on holy scripture and to comment on their meaning and interpretation (ad formam sensus et interpretationis eorum). Two characteristics of Bede's corpus are clear; it is heavily dependent on the work of his predecessors (though this is no bad thing) and it is always concerned with the bible and its interpetation.
Bede then provides a bibliography of his works. Predominant are commentaries on the various books of the bible: Genesis, Samuel, Kings, Proverbs, Song of Songs, Isaiah, Daniel, the twelve prophets, Jeremiah, Ezra, Nehemiah, Habakkuk, Tobias, Mark, Luke, Acts, the Pauline epistles and Revelation. Bede's Commentary on Acts pioneered the exposition of the biblical book, and was probably enhanced by Bede's use of a bilingual Greek-Latin copy of Acts. This manuscript is now in the Bodleian Library under the shelf-mark Laud Gr. 35. In addition, Bede also composed thematic commentaries on the tabernacle and the temple. Furthermore, he lists a series of Capitula lectionum, biblical and patristic excerpts for reading during the divine service, as well as two series of New Testament Homilies. Bede's hagiography included a martyrology, a prose life of St Felix (derived from Paulinus's verse life), a revised translation of the Greek Life of St Anastasius and verse and prose lives of St Cuthbert. He composed textbooks on natural history, computus, orthography, poetics and rhetoric, while his miscellaneous poetic output included a book of hymns and a book of epigraphs.
But Bede is best known for his historical works, the Historia abbatum and especially the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum. The immediate model for Bede's History was Eusebius of Caesarea's Greek Historia Ecclesiastica, translated into Latin by Rufinus. Bede covers the growth of the church in England from 60 BC until 731 AD. Each of the work's five books has a discrete theme: the first covers the background to the Augustinian mission; the second, the mission and its relation to Pope Gregory; the third, the growth of the Northumbrian church under Irish influence; the fourth, the achievements of Theodore in the south and Cuthbert in the north; and the fifth, the present state of the English church. These are written, to quote Roger Ray, with 'a splendid Latinity which includes locutions more characteristic of (say) Livy or Cicero than of Gregory the Great and the Vulgate'.
Further Reading: A thorough list of Bede's works and the most recent edition of each text is given by Sharpe 2001 (§152). Brown 1987 is a useful and concise overview of Bede's life and work. The most recent edition of the Historia is Colgrave & Mynors 1969, which has a facing page translation, though most scholars still favour Plummer's 1896 edition. There's also a covenient Penguin translation, Sherley-Price 1955. Much useful material on the Historia can be gathered from the lectures collected in Lapidge 1994 and from subsequent Jarrow lectures, published separately.