In a period of about forty years, two texts belonging to the literary genre of Biblical poetry, whose content deals with Christ’s life and teachings, appeared in German medieval literature of the 9th century: on the one hand, Otfrid von Weissenburg’s Evangelienbuch, in Old High German, and, on the other, the anonymous Heliand, written in Old Saxon. The latter work has been studied very frequently due to the narrative tone used to talk about Christ’s works and teachings, as well as his relationship with his disciples, and their attitude, which recalls the type of heroic discourse typical of heroic Germanic poetry of the oral tradition beyond the religious sphere. In the case of the Evangelienbuch there are also traits of a narrative discourse characteristic of a type of diction typical of heroic Germanic poetry; however, little attention is paid to it, or even the presence of this kind of discourse is categorically denied. This reveals a clear imbalance in the consideration of both works, which does not do justice to the reality of the Evangelienbuch, in particular. The aim of this paper is to provide evidence that a heroic narrative tone can also be found in the latter work, not only very similar to that used by the autor of the Heliand, but also to that of other ancient Germanic texts in German, English and Norse, outside the religious sphere, such as the Hildebrandslied, Beowulf, The Battle of Maldon, The Battle of Brunnanburh and the Sörla saga sterka.
MS Ambrosianus D 52 sup. is a collection of homilies by Basil and John Chrysostom, written by several similar hands around the mid-tenth century, clearly in a monastic milieu. It bears a general resemblance to MS Vat. gr. 167 of Theophanes Continuatus. A different scribe, the one who copied the famous Iliad MS Marcianus gr. 454, transcribed most of the Narratio de imagine Edessena (ff. 81r-92v), then handed over the task to one of the homogeneous group (ff. 93r-94v). The Narratio stands in a peculiar recension, which turns out to be the oldest, connected with Theophanes the parakoimomenos. A coeval hand made corrections and additions to the codex to retain only the second tradition about the origin of the Mandylion, that of the imprint of bloody sweat. The relic was never displayed and thus was usually imagined rather than seen. If we consider the interventions in codex Ambrosianus, a piece of information by Pseudo-Symeon the chronographer, and the homily of Gregory the referendarios, we are led to believe that the Mandylion could be superimposed on the face of the Turin Shroud. The Church’s need to sacrifice its treasures to pay the substantial debt owed to the Crusaders provided the opportunity to discover the true size of the cloth.
The Ross. 184 manuscript from the Vatican Apostolic Library, a decorated Psalter made in Tegernsee in the third quarter of the 11th century, features the copy of a letter (f. 7v) from Innocent II (1130-1143) addressed to the clergy and laity of the parish of Santa Maria di Grezzana in Valpantena, within the Diocese of Verona. This finding allows for the reconstruction of key moments in the manuscript’s history: thanks to the transcription of that document by Giusto Fontanini (1666-1736), the Psalter can be identified as one of the manuscripts that once belonged to the collection of Domenico Passionei (1682-1761). The inclusion of the copy of Innocent II’s letter also suggests that the Psalter might have been in Rome as early as the 12th century, thereby joining the limited number of Ottonian manuscripts that made their way to Italy, and specifically to Rome, during the Middle Ages.
The Vita Anselmi episcopi Lucensis, written by Ranger of Lucca between 1096 and 1099, can be seen as an account of different conflicts which took place in the 1080s. One episode is particularly striking: Rangerius depicts a “public” debate in Lucca, which leads to a dialogue between Petrus – who had been recently invested as bishop of Lucca by Henry IV – and Bardo, a supporter of Anselm and Gregory VII. By means of a detailed analysis of this episode, this paper will argue that the use of dialogue serves several purposes. First, the dialogue can be seen as a literary presentation of the conflict in Lucca. Allegedly without bias, the two opponents represent different “voices” and demonstrate how the situation in Lucca relates to more fundamental conflicts and questions. Secondly, the dialogue hints at the use of oral communication and public debates in times of conflicts. Thus, the narration can also be seen as a reflection of emerging strategies of conflict resolution in an urban public context.
This article aims to provide a critical edition of an unpublished treatise de soloecismo et barbarismo made up of three shorter sections (περὶ ἑλληνισμοῦ, περὶ σολοικισμοῦ, περὶ βαρβαρισμοῦ), which has been transmitted by the Ambr. C 222 inf., f. 212v. The edition reveals that this text belongs to the same tradition as a group of scholia to Dionysius Thrax’s Τέχνη γραμματική preserved in two 15th-century manuscripts, the so-called scholia Londinensia (Σl). In addition to being older than the already known scholia witnesses, the manuscript offers a more complete text, and in several instances sheds light on the origins of errors in the tradition of the scholia.
The editors of the poems of Aimeric de Pegulhan, William P. Shepard and Frank M. Chambers, maintain that Amors, a vos mezeusa⋅m clam de vos (BEdT 10.7) was composed approximately at the same time as Car fui de dura acoindansa (BEdT 10.14) and perhaps A lei de fol camiador (BEdT 10.4); in fact, there seem to be neither evidence nor clues that might effectively support this hypothesis. It is as well possible that Amors, a vos mezeusa⋅m clam had been written just before Aimeric’s transfer to the Iberian Peninsula, or even when he was still in Toulouse. In truth, the chronology of the song cannot at present be circumscribed with sufficient certainty. The article offers a new critical edition and commentary of the song.
The paper aims to investigate the meaning of the expression σχήματα ἐμπερίβολα in § XIV Περὶ ἐπιστολῶν of the Σύνοψις ῥητορικῆς by Joseph Rakendytes, a Byzantine monk of the 13th-14th cent. The meaning of the iunctura is not clear for the modern reader. However, a comparison of § VI of the Σύνοψις (on σχήματα) with Hermogenes’ remarks on περιβολή is helpful and leads to the assumption that Rakendytes was referring collectively to a whole group of figures, well known to his reader. The passage of the Σύνοψις on epistolary style is compared to other Greek and Latin sources. The analysis shows that these brief and highly topical texts, although belonging to different eras and environments, require a comparative study to be clearly understood.
The contribution presents some 14th-century illuminated cuttings of Tuscan origin housed at the Germanisches Museum in Nuremberg, painted by the Master of the Statute of 1337 and the Master of the Gradual I of Montepulciano that, with some other previously unpublished leaves with the same origin, now in the museums of Stuttgart, Frankfurt, and Liège, were removed from two different liturgical series in the first half of the 19th century. These leaves and cuttings were sold at the 1867 auction of the collection of Johann Anton Ramboux: therefore, the article investigates the fate of a number of Ramboux Italian fragments, identifying those which entered the Germanisches Museum.
Discussing the recent publication of the critical edition of the annotations written by Petrarch in the margins of his manuscript of Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis historia (Par. lat. 6802), the article provides a brief overview of Petrarchan relationship with Plinian encylopedia. In particular, the essay dwells on the different typologies of marginalia and Petrarch’s interests they reveal, taking also into account that Naturalis historia was to become one of the classical works more investigated by XVth century humanists.
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