BHL 1023 as Ælfric's source

The complete text of the Vita Basilii has never been printed before the present edition, but can be found in Surius’ collection of saints’ lives in a heavily modified form. The similarity between BHL 1023 (as printed in Surius) and LB was first noted by Heinrich Ott, who identified many of Ælfric's sources without the aid of the BHL. The structure and internal organisation of Surius’ text are identical to those of Ælfric's work, but, as Ott observed, its phrasing suggested that Ælfric had used a different manuscript tradition. In addition to Surius’ adaptation, Ott also identified two further printed versions of the Vita: one in the pre-Rosweydian Vitae Patrum (by Georg Maior), and one by Anastasius Bibliothecarius, which can now be ascribed to a completely different strand (BHL 1022). These three versions were translated from the Greek Pseudo-Amphilochian Life of Saint Basil, but, according to Patrick Zettel, none of them is a plausible source for Ælfric's Old English translation.

As shown above (chapter 1), there is another translation of the Pseudo- Amphilochian life, now identifiable as BHL 1024 (by Ursus), not mentioned by Zettel. Furthermore, since the translation by Anastasius Bibliothecarius awaits re-editing, it seems necessary to compare LB and the three surviving (complete) translations of the Pseudo-Amphilochian life, before accepting the identification of BHL 1023 as Ælfric's source. Lexical and syntactical parallels rather than structural ones will better illustrate the case. Because all three Latin translations are relatively faithful to the Greek text, and because of Ælfric's originality as a translator, it is often difficult to find a definite indication of his dependence on BHL 1023, and not, say, on BHL 1022.

One example will justify this caution. When Ephrem the Syrian goes to meet Basil, he asks a favour of him: ‘ic wat þæt þu bist tiða swa hwæs swa þu bytst æt Gode. Bide nu. æt Gode þæt ic Grecisc cunne’ (lines 512–13). This is a very close translation of Vita Basilii: ‘[s]cio pater sancte, quia quantacumque postulaueris a Deo tribuet tibi et uolo ut depreceris Deum quatenus loquar graece’ (c. 13, lines 46–8). Ælfric's rendering here mirrors the Latin with the introductory verb scio / ic wat, and the indirect interrogative ‘quantacumque postulaueris a Deo’ translated as ‘swa hwæs swa þu bytst æt Gode’.