Among the many medieval lives of Brendan the Seafaring Saint, there is one particular version that has not yet been examined in its own right: the Vita S. Brendani rhythmica. It presents itself as a Latin translation of Benedeit’s Anglo-Norman Voyage, all the while incorporating a prologue, an epilogue, and a series of changes that cannot be explained in relation to its original. Ironically, the particular framing of the Vita has only been studied more closely when its author was thought to be identified as Walter of Châtillon. Any allusions to the addressee ›Alexander‹ appeared to point to Pope Alexander III; any overall interpretation had to give way to biographical analysis.As the article will show, these identifications have not been proven sufficiently. Instead, analysis will reveal the contemporary discourse of Alexander the Great, in the light of which the peculiarities of the Vita can be explained and its inherent argumentation becomes apparent. Alexander the Great’s vain aspirations to paradise are contextualized with Brendan’s paradisiacal journey, as attested also by the collocation in Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O. 1. 17. He becomes the implicit literary exemplar against which both the particularity of Brendan’s journey and the unknown addressee ›Alexander‹ can distinguish themselves.

No interest in the author, in the original or in the reconstruction of authentic wording. These were the premises of a small volume by Bernard Cerquiglini, who in the 1990s caused a considerable stir in medieval German studies to reconsider the characteristics of medieval textuality. Based on examples from the branch of the Latin transmission of Mechthild of Magdeburg’s Das Fließende Licht der Gottheit, this article seeks to demonstrate that constellations of reception exist, which are fuelled by an interest in the author and in the original indicating a philological endeavour to (re‑)construct the authentic wording. The analysis focuses on a prayer from the Lux divinitatis, which shows that it was not only compared to a German exemplar, but also corrected on the basis of the same exemplar. The time and place of this critical work will be considered by means of the textual history and history of transmission of the prayer as well as further textual witnesses. In relation to the textual origins of the prayer under discussion, the hypothesis is put forward that the seemingly ›reconstructive approach‹ of the Latin wording to Mechthild’s ipsissima verba in the vernacular was chosen in order to provide philologically sound access to the ›authentic experience‹ preserved in the original wording of Mechthild’s act of devotion.

This paper offers a study and edition of the Versificationes ad excerpta canonum librorum, a set of epigrams designed to decorate the index of a collection of summaries of conciliar canons and decretals, itself arranged thematically in ten books and known as the Excerpta hispana. The epigrams were written after the Council of Toledo of 656 and before the Council of Mérida of 666, when Ildefonsus was bishop of Toledo. The author was not a gifted or inspired poet, but at least he knew the basics of Latin versification as cultivated in Visigothic Spain in the time of Reccesuinth.

This article presents a text from the field of parenetic literature, having at its centre many concepts characteristic of devotional literature in the period from the 13th to the 15th century: pusillanimity, weakness of will, scruples of conscience, contestation, remedy, consolation. This text, called here Consolatio optima in temptationibus, is interesting not only for its content, but also for its complex genesis as a combination of other texts that had been previously transmitted on their own. The main aim of this contribution is to make the Consolatio optima in temptationibus accessible to historical research through edition and translation while at the same time describing its complex transmission as an example for the fluidity of this type of compilatory literature. Due to the high level of variance, we give the text in a hybrid form: the printed edition reproduces the individual constituent parts of the complete work based on a single manuscript in each case, while the complete textual transmission with its separate strings is presented online in a synoptic view.

Towards the end of the 13th century, the Flemish Nichasius de Planca was studying theology at the University of Paris. When Jean de Vassogne, Bishop of Tournai (1292 – 1300), withdrew his financial support because of a personal conflict, Nichasius went in search of a new patron. To this end, he wrote the prosimetrum De precepto Prudentie in 1297 and dedicated it to William of Berthout, Bishop of Utrecht (1296 – 1301).The hitherto unedited work is modelled on Boethius (De consolatione Philosophiae). In the first book, Nichasius describes how he is commissioned by the personified Prudentia to promote within the scholastic milieu the intellectual benefits of the scorned poetry (this refers primarily to the pagan poetry of antiquity). In the second book, the author carries out this mission with the help of Aristotelian methods.The outstanding importance of this prosimetrum results not only from its elaborate style, but also from its position in literary history. Here, a theologically trained author of the late Middle Ages makes a strong plea for the integration of pagan poetry into the scholastic system.

This essay deals with three poems in Sapphic verse: the anonymous Carmen Saphicum de sancto Georgio Martyre (St. Gall, VadSlg Ms. 455, fol. 105v a/b), the first edition of which is to be presented here, and the two authentic Sapphic poems by Enea Silvio Piccolomini, Hymnus de passione (LXXII Cugnoni / 96 Van Heck) and De nativitate domini (LXIX Cugnoni / 93 Van Heck). After analysing these poems from a metrical, lexical and formal point of view, the question of whether Enea Silvio Piccolomini could also be the author of the former poem will also be addressed.

In the High Middle Ages, the literary genre of autobiography undergoes an impressive renaissance (Abaelard, Guibert of Nogent, Hermannus quondamIudaeus, Gerald of Wales and others). Among the hitherto little-noticed representatives of this genre is the Burgundian teacher Jean d’Argilly (Johannes deArgilleo / Divionensis / Burgundus), regular canon of Saint-Étienne at Dijon. His Libellus lamentationis, written in 1152, contains a psychologically elaborated double biography in which Jean not only talks about the passion of his recently deceased half-brother Aimeri, but also presents his own curriculum vitae, which is characterized by multiple changes of place (Dijon, Saint-Mihiel, Verdun, Reims, Besançon). The rhetorically sophisticated text offers an unusually detailed (auto‑)biography, while at the same time illustrating in an exemplary manner the medieval culture of dying, comforting, and remembering. In this article, the Libellus lamentationis and some accompanying letters arecritically edited and evaluated for the first time.

The Anthologia Isidoriana, published by Giovanni B. De Rossi (Inscriptiones Christianae urbis Romae septimo saeculo antiquiores 2, 1, Roma 1888, 250 – 254), consists of a series of eight heterogeneous epigrams: EpitaphiumDamasi (1), Epitaphium Monicae (2), Epitaphium Gregorii (3), Item eiusdem Gregorii (4), In icona sancti Petri (5), In basilica sancti Pauli (6), In uelo Chintilae (7), Versus Eucheriae (A). The Anthologia Isidoriana is preserved, either completely or partially, in the manuscripts Leiden, Bibliotheek der Rijksuniversiteit,Voss. Lat. Q 69, and Voss. Lat. F 82; Bern, Burgerbibliothek, 224;London, British Library, Harley 2686; München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 18375; Valenciennes, Bibliotheque municipale, 405; Montecassino, Biblioteca Statale, 320; Groningen, Bibliotheek der Rijksuniversiteit, 8; Klosterneuburg, Stiftsbibliothek, 723; Bruxelles, Bibliotheque royale, 10615 – 729; Ljubljana, Narodna in univerzitetna knjižnica, 16; München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 22227; Göttweig, Stiftsbibliothek, 64; Legnica, BUWr, 29;Wien, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, lat. 4924, and München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 14334. According to the structure and location of the epigrams in the Isidorian codices – either at the end of book XX or at the end of book X of the Etymologiae and in five non-Isidorian codices – it is possible to establish a preliminary classification of the witnesses, which probably derive from Spanish manuscripts of the second half of the seventh century.

The Epistola Presbiteri Iohannis is structurally divided in two sections: in the first section, written in epistolary style, the Presbiter, introducing himself as dominus dominantium, addresses the Byzantine emperor Manuel; in the second one, the purported dominus describes his power and his domain, identified as India. The aim of the present article is to shed light on the relationship between these two sections of the Epistola, to better understand the compositional process of the whole work. The textual analysis suggests that the epistolary section was probably written without foreseeing the subsequent mirabilia:the description of the reign was progressively created and integrated in a following phase, and it changed the perspectives and the intentions of the whole text. Some remnants of this process are still visible in two textual versions, preserved in a few ancient manuscripts – i. e. the form called Kurzfassung u by Bettina Wagner (2000), the first one to draw attention to it. The primordial disjunction of these two sections may explain the ambiguities of the text, which can hardly be traced back to a single purpose and warn against overly univocal interpretations of this puzzling work.

Single article for instant download The learned magicians of the Middle Ages used a wide range of physical instruments in their rituals. Among them a special typology of book stands out, called ›liber sacer‹ or ›liber sacratus‹ (›sacred‹ or ›consecrated book‹), that served as a media of divine power in the summoning of spirits.1 Books of this kind were considered particularly execrable by censors and no single specimen seems to have survived. Even so, the history of their tradition, their features, use and meaning in magic theory can be reconstructed by means of several texts internal and external to the magic literature. Some major collections also contain manuscripts in which the contents of single sacred books are copied. This study offers a first outline on the subject, together with the edition of one text of the ›liber sacer‹ tradition, called De modo ministrandi librum sacrum (On the use of the sacred book).