 In about 701 Bede wrote his first works , the De Arte Metrica and De Schematibus et Tropis ; both were intended for use in the classroom . He continued to write for the rest of his life , eventually completing over 60 books , most of which have survived . Not all his output can be easily dated , and Bede may have worked on some texts over a period of many years . His last @-@ surviving work is a letter to Ecgbert of York , a former student , written in 734 . A 6th @-@ century Greek and Latin manuscript of Acts that is believed to have been used by Bede survives and is now in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University ; it is known as the Codex Laudianus . Bede may also have worked on one of the Latin bibles that were copied at Jarrow , one of which is now held by the Laurentian Library in Florence . Bede was a teacher as well as a writer ; he enjoyed music , and was said to be accomplished as a singer and as a reciter of poetry in the vernacular . It is possible that he suffered a speech impediment , but this depends on a phrase in the introduction to his verse life of Saint Cuthbert . Translations of this phrase differ , and it is uncertain whether Bede intended to say that he was cured of a speech problem , or merely that he was inspired by the saint 's works . 
