Editing Asser (section)

==Legend of founding of Oxford==
In 1603 the antiquarian [[William Camden]] published an edition of Asser's ''Life'' in which there appears a story of a community of scholars at Oxford, who were visited by Grimbald:

<blockquote>
In the year of our Lord 886, the second year of the arrival of St Grimbald in England, the University of Oxford was begun ... John, monk of the church of St David, giving lectures in logic, music and arithmetic; and John, the monk, colleague of St Grimbald, a man of great parts and a universal scholar, teaching geometry and astronomy before the most glorious and invincible King Alfred.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/about/oxford-figures/ch1-1 |title=Oxford Figures – About: The Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford |access-date=31 January 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110609180358/http://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/about/oxford-figures/ch1-1 |archive-date=9 June 2011 }}</ref>
</blockquote>

There is no support for this in any source known. Camden based his edition on Parker's manuscript, other transcripts of which do not include any such material. It is now acknowledged that this is an interpolation of Camden's, though the legend itself first surfaced in the 14th century.<ref name=CE_Asser>{{Cite CE1913
| wstitle =John Asser
| first = John Joseph
| last = A'Becket
| volume = 1
}}</ref><ref>See for example ''The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21): Volume I. From the Beginnings to the Cycles of Romance.'' Chapter VI: Alfred and the Old English Prose of his Reign, § 1: Asser's Life of Alfred is online at {{Cite web| url = http://www.bartleby.com/211/0601.html | title = §1. Asser's "Life of Alfred". VI. Alfred and the Old English Prose of his Reign. Vol. 1. From the Beginnings to the Cycles of Romance. | access-date = 18 April 2007}}</ref> Older books about Alfred the Great include the legend: for example, Jacob Abbott's 1849 ''Alfred the Great'' says that "One of the greatest and most important of the measures which Alfred adopted for the intellectual improvement of his people was the founding of the great University of Oxford."<ref>{{Cite web| url = http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=abbott&book=alfred&story=reign | title = The Baldwin Project: Alfred the Great by Jacob Abbott | access-date = 18 April 2007}}</ref>