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Gildas: Some Textual Notes and Corrections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2013

W. H. Davies
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Extract

The Preface to the Penitential of Gildas has hitherto been found in only one MS., preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris ( = Lat. 3182). This MS. is a large parchment codex of the tenth—eleventh centuries, containing a collection of canons, decretals, penitential fragments, etc. taken from many sources, e.g. the Collectio Canonum Hibernensis, the Lex Salica, etc. After an extract on pp. 279–80 headed ‘Item synodus sapientia sic de decimis disputant’, the Gildasian preface follows on p. 280 with ‘Incipit prefacio Gildae de poenitentia’, concluding on p. 281 with ‘hue usque Gildas incipitnunc sinodus aquilonalis Britanniae’. Most editions of this penitential are reprints of F. Wasserschleben's text. Based on a collation by Dr. Knust, it is defective from the standpoint of readings and palaeographical information.

The following collation has utilised, apparently for the first time, a newly-discovered MS. of the penitential, now in the Bibliothèque Municipale at Cambrai ( = No. 625, ff. 52–53). If the catalogue date, viz. saec. ix, is correct, then this MS. is earlier than Paris Lat. 3182.

Type
Research Article
Information
Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 15 , November 1939 , pp. 42 - 48
Copyright
Copyright © British School at Rome 1939

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References

1 For the British extracts, vide Wasserschleben, F. W., Die Bussordnungen der abendländiscken Kirche (Halle, 1851), pp. 6 ffGoogle Scholar. For the contents of the MS., vide Maassen, F., Geschichte der Quellen und der Literatur des canonischen Rechts, etc. (Gratz, 1870), pp. 784–6Google Scholar. It is difficult MS. to date: vide McNeill, J. T. and Gamer, H. M., Medieval Handbooks of Penance (N. York, 1938), p. 62Google Scholar (with a facsimile). It may have come from Fecamp, Normandy, and shows traces of an Insular exemplar. Regarding the Coll. Can. Hibernensis, Wasserschleben, Die irische Kanonensammlung (ed. 2, Leipzig, 1885), pp. xxvi–xxviiGoogle Scholar, held that the MS. Vallicelli, Tom. XVIII (not A. XVIII), represents an insular enlargement of the (Frankish) original, embodying extracts from Patrick, Gildas and Irish synods. For treatment and bibliography, vide McNeill, op. cit. p. 139. I have collated this extract from the actual manuscript.

2 Wasserschleben, op. cit. pp. 105–8. Martène, E. and Durand, U., Thes. Nov. Anecd. IV (1717), 7–8Google Scholar, printed it from the Paris MS., but with variations. Wasserschleben's (Knust's) text has been reprinted by Bradshaw, H. in Haddan, and Stubbs, , Councils and Eccl. Documents, I (1869), pp. 113–5Google Scholar; Schmitz, H. J., Die Bussbücher und die Bussdisciplin der Kirche, (Mainz, 1883), pp. 495 ff.Google Scholar; T. Mommsen, Mon. Ger. Hist., Auct. Ant., Tom. XIII, Chron. Min., III (Berlin, 1898), pp. 89–90Google Scholar; H. Williams, Cymmrodorion Record Series, No. 3 (London, 1901), part 2, pp. 276 ff. English translations are given by Williams and by McNeill, op. cit., pp. 174–8 (without the text).

3 The collations in Wasserschleben's works (vide note 1) are not complete. This, together with the paucity of reliable information about the dates and textual character of the MSS., demands that they be used with great caution for purposes of comparison.

4 It is a parchment MS. of 80 folios, with double columns of fine minuscule script, originally belonging to the Cathedral at Cambrai. Like Paris Lat. 3182, with which it must be compared, it contains the canons of sixthcentury Welsh synods and extracts from a book of David. I am grateful to Mr. B. M. Peebles, Fordham University, for drawing my attention to McNeill, op. cit. p. 434, n. 1, where the MS. is signalised. The collation has been made from photostats kindly supplied me through the courtesy of the Keeper of the MSS., Mons. P. Plantain.

5 Vide Catalogue Général des Manuscrits des Bibliothéques Publiques de France, Tome XVII (Paris, 1891), p. 243Google Scholar. Professor E. K. Rand, Harvard University, whom I must thank for very helpful advice, would subscribe to this date from a cursory examination of a photostat.

The sigla are:—P (Paris, Bibl. Nat., Lat. 3182), C (Cambrai, Bibl. Munic. MS. No. 625), M (Marténe and Durand), EDD. (editions of Wasserschleben, etc). Most of the sections are indicated in the MSS. by capital letters. P is followed mostly.

L. 1 Sodomittam C. L. 2 prolato M. monachii C. iii (as usual) C. L. 3 superpossessionem C. faciat EDD. L = tC. L. 4 butero (-ῑo) C. inpingato P. L, paximati M. misso C, misoclo M. C, P. L. 6 himana C. L. 7 tẻnuclae .. balthute C. L. 8 et aquae tal.) etque talim populo C. L. 9 lecturura(-ū)C. tres quadragesimas EDD. L. 11 pre) CP ( = prae). L. 12 eucaritiam Ca, euch. Cb, eucharitiam P. et)om. C. L. 13 penitus C. caelistis EDD. L. 14 imferiore C. possitus P. manachus Pa. L. 17 uotu CP. L. 18 P. L. 19 dimedium C. L. 20 facuntatem P. L. 22 Aantiqui C. statuerunt EDD. L. 24 est)sit EDD., L. 25 eque CP. maxme C. in XLmis M. L. 26 P. exun (partly earsed) exundate C. L.27 superpossit. P.

L. 1 causa)om. CaPa, inserted above CbPb (with .،. before), superpossit. P. L. 3 die superpositionem C. superposs. P. L. 5 neglegens CP. L. 6 peniteat)om. CbPb, inserted above XLmas CbPb. L. 7 etlinguis C, e linguis Wass. L. 9 peco*e Pa. si ipse) si se (partly erased) ipse C. L. 10 cummunic. P. C. L. 12 quanto)qnđ C, qndo P. peccato M. L. 15 demedium) CP. L. 16 illiud C. L. 17 iubentur C. L. 22 debit Wass. iudicare C, *indicare Pa. L. 23 accuss. Pb. sed)sunt C. afectu C. L. 24 occurrerit M. L. 25 missam C. L. 26 venerit) ue(sic, end of line) C. L. 27 verbis) urbis CP. L. 29 neglegendo CP. L. 30 P- L. 31 cenubium est CP. L. 32 canat) CP, EDD. L. 33 aut) M.

L. 1 suis)om. M. L. 6 fratibus C. L. 7 quod)pro(d = ? for ǥ) C. L. 8 dilator) CP, delator EDD.

6 The other sigla used by Mommsen and in the above note are: A (Avranches, Public Library, No. 162. twelfth century); C (British Museum, Cotton Vitellius A VI.; ?eleventh century); D (Cambridge, Univ. Lib., Dd. I. 17. fourteenth century); X (Cambridge, ib. Ff. 1. 27, 1. thirteenth century); P (Editio Princeps of Polydore Vergil, London, 1525); Q (Edition of Ioannes Iosselinus, London, 1568). I have used my own collation of these.

7 For a parallel cf. Grynaeus ib. p. 832; T. Gale, Historiae Britannicae…. Scriptores XV (Oxford 1691), p. 11 (Ch. 32, exitialibus for specialibus). The eclectic character of the variants is illustrated by the absence of any reference to Ch. 6 ut aiebant) AEP, ut agebant, DQ, ut aiunt X.

8 Cf. note 7. Palaeographically H cannot be restricted to the sixteenth century (cf. Mommsen, ‘manus aequalis’ above).