 The Historia Ecclesiastica was copied often in the Middle Ages , and about 160 manuscripts containing it survive . About half of those are located on the European continent , rather than on the British Isles . Most of the <unk> and 9th @-@ century texts of Bede 's Historia come from the northern parts of the Carolingian Empire . This total does not include manuscripts with only a part of the work , of which another 100 or so survive . It was printed for the first time between 1474 and 1482 , probably at Strasbourg , France . Modern historians have studied the Historia extensively , and a number of editions have been produced . For many years , early Anglo @-@ Saxon history was essentially a retelling of the Historia , but recent scholarship has focused as much on what Bede did not write as what he did . The belief that the Historia was the culmination of Bede 's works , the aim of all his scholarship , a belief common among historians in the past , is no longer accepted by most scholars . 
