Réécritures hagiographiques

The death of Wojciech-Adalbert (†997), a runaway bishop of Prague and failed missionary among the pagan tribes of the southern Baltic shores, spurred a number of histories to be composed about him within learned circles. The first one was sponsored, along with several pious foundations, by the emperor Otto III, who was not only a personal friend but also a great promoter of the veneration for the new martyr. Several rewritings of this text – some substantial – and the prompt composition of new ones testify to the extent to which Adalbert’s life and death was able to bring focus to the disputes of the time. What to make of his desertion – albeit pious – of his episcopacy? What was the reason for Adalbert’s death? How does one proceed with a missionary endeavor? Who are the pagans? How exactly does one become a martyr? Who are Christians to understand to be the main beneficiary of this sudden outpouring of God’s grace? To answer those questions was apparently not an easy task and certainly not devoid of controversy.
Newly edited, annotated and translated here is the smallest and latest contribution to the early cluster of Adalbert’s hagiography. Passio s. Adalperti martiris (BHL 40) in its current form is a crude abridgement of the passion written originally in the 1st quarter of the 11th century, probably in circles close to Adalbert’s brother, then an archbishop at Gniezno. The textual tradition of this text is not considerable: only two manuscript copies, both held at the Bavarian State Library in Munich, with the later one being a direct copy of the first. The older one (Clm 18897), still rather of the 11th century, was probably written at – and certainly very early on belonged to – a Benedictine monastery at Tegernsee in Bavaria (hence the Polish sobriquet: Passion from Tegersee). The original provenance of the newer codex (Clm 23846) is as yet unknown, but it was certainly written in Bavaria in the 15th century. The commentary contains an oft-suggested codicological and paleographic description of the older codex with its historically changing content. What follows is a study of the author’s learning (biblical, classical and patristic) and its employment for the construction of the narrative. It is also an attempt at situating the passio within the contemporary debate inside the hagiographical cluster by analyzing its author’s take on some of the important issues raised by previous hagiographers. Just as the first two basic vitae were to some extent different takes on and interpretations of the same basic facts, the text edited here introduces some serious factual discrepancies.
Passio s. Adalperti in the older manuscript is accompanied by a short account of pre- aching in Prussia by Bruno-Boniface of Querfurt (†1009) and his subsequent death there. The author of this text (Hystoria de predicatione episcopi Brunonis), going by the name of Wipert, claims to be one of Bruno’s chaplains and the sole surviving eyewitness of the martyrdom. Because both texts form a distinct codicological unit within Clm 18897 and because Bruno himself was an author of more than one text belonging to the early hagiographical cluster of St. Adalbert, this text is also edited, translated and annotated anew."

This book is a revised dissertation concerned with the three oldest hagiographies of St. Adalbert of Prague (BHL 37-40), treated as vehicles and voices in the debate about the new saint and the world around him. The study comprises of three chapters.The initial part is a critical analysis of the textual tradition of the first two lives. For the anonymous so-called “First Life” a particular attention is given to problems of authorship, writing milieu and chronology of the three extant redactions. For the so-called „Second Life” by Bruno of Querfurt the concern is mainly with the form of the bulkier first redaction, the character of later insertions and hagiographer’s method.The second chapter is entirely devoted to differences between worldviews of hagiographers, charting their polemics and pinpointing controversies through close reading of texts in all of the extant redactions of the first two lives. A special attention was being paid the the idea of martyrdom as a main organizing device.The last chapter is a discussion of the so-called Passio s. Adalperti martiris (from Tegernsee in Bavaria). Beginning with a codicological analysis of the two extant manuscripts, this part is concerned not only with the history of the text and the problem of authorship but also with the author’s erudition, his method of constructing the presented world, and his stance toward the previous accounts.

"La présente étude s'inscrit dans le débat à propos d'une éventuelle " mutation féodale " autour de l'an mil. Il s'agit d'étudier l'aristocratie laïque durant les Xe et XIe siècles, en prêtant une égale attention aux ressorts matériels et idéologiques de sa domination sociale. La signification des transformations que connaît alors l'écriture diplomatique étant au cœur de la controverse, le choix a été fait de partir des sources hagiographiques originaires des abbayes d'Aurillac, Conques et Figeac. Mais le discours hagiographique présente ses propres biais. Afin de s'en prémunir au mieux, on a confronté autant que possible les affirmations des sources hagiographiques aux informations disponibles grâce à d'autres types de documents. La démonstration procède en deux étapes. En recourant aux méthodes de l'hagiologie, la première partie permet de contextualiser la production hagiographique et de s'interroger sur les conditions de sa réception : on s'aperçoit que si les textes latins sont d'abord destinés à être lus par des clercs, de multiples canaux de diffusion orale permettaient aux hagiographes de s'adresser également aux laïcs, en particulier à l'aristocratie. La seconde partie étudie l'évolution de la domination aristocratique à travers ce que permet d'en percevoir l'hagiographie. Elle montre qu'un certain nombre de transformations ont eu lieu dès le début du Xe siècle et permettent de parler d'une " mutation de l'an 900 " : l'émergence de la chevalerie, la mise en place de la féodalité, la montée en puissance des sires, l'importance des châteaux et des milites sont autant de phénomènes qui datent de cette époque. Toutefois, l'an mil connaît deux ajustements non négligeables : le redéploiement de l'identité aristocratique autour des châteaux et le passage d'une conception cognatique de la parenté noble à une autre d'avantage agnatique.
The present study falls within the scope of the debate about a possible "feudal mutation" around the year 1000. It is concerned with the study of lay aristocracy during the 10th and 11th centuries, by giving equal attention to ideological and material aspects of its social domination. Because the meaning of the transformations that affect diplomatic writing then is in the heart of the matter, we make the choice to work from the hagiographic narratives from the abbeys of Aurillac, Conques and Figeac. But there are also biases in the hagiographic discourse. In order to counterbalance their influence, we have compared as much as possible the data from hagiographic texts with the information available thanks to other types of documents. The demonstration is organized in two steps. Using the methods of hagiology, the first part contextualizes hagiographic production and questions the conditions of its reception: we are led to realize that, if the Latin texts are primaraly intented to be read by clerics, multiple oral channels allowed hagiographers to address also the laity, especially the aristocracy. The second part examines the evolution of aristocratic domination through what can be perceived in the hagiography. It shows that some transformations took place as early as the beginning of the 10th century and that we can therefore speak of "a mutation of the year 900": the ermergence of chivalry, the establishment of feudalism, the rise of the lords, the importance of castles and milites are phenomena which date from this time. Howewer, there are two significant adjustments around the year 1000: aristocratic identity refocuses on castles and the the noble kinship moves from a cognatic conception to another more agnatic."

Резюме на български:
Статията е предговор, въвеждащ в тематичния брой на сп. „Филологически форум“ (брой 1 (15)), който предлага нови перспективи и съвременни подходи към широк спектър от проблеми, свързани с пренаписването, преформулирането и преосмислянето на нормите, изследвани в конкретните проявления в полето на романското литературознание. Научният предговор предлага критичен обзор на съвременни публикации в областта на митокритиката, най-вече във взаимодействията ѝ с интертекстуалността и интермедиалността. Уводът съдържа и научен преглед на статиите на шест млади изследователи. Статиите са организирани в две тематични секции с фокус върху завръщането на митичните фигури и върху формите на пренаписване и преформулиране. Предговорът, както и статиите, са посветени на научни проблеми, свързани с елементите на повторение и обновяване, процесите на семантично изграждане и естетическа приемственост. 

Résumé : Cet article constitue une introduction au numéro thématique du Forum Philologique (numéro 1 (15)), qui offre de nouvelles perspectives et des aperçus contemporains sur un large éventail de questions liées à la réécriture, à la reformulation et à la réinvention des normes, tout en explorant des cas dans le domaine des littératures romanes. Reflétant l’agencement du contenu du numéro, cette introduction contient une synthèse critique de la recherche contemporaine dans le domaine de la mythocritique liée à différentes formes d'intertextualité et d'intermédialité. L’article contient également une présentation des contributions de six jeunes chercheurs, organisées en deux sections qui se concentrent respectivement sur le retour des figures mythiques et sur les formes de réécriture et de reformulation. L’introduction et toutes les contributions visent à évaluer l’importance des éléments de répétition et de renouvellement, des processus de construction sémantique et de continuité esthétique.

The extant Lives of the sixth-century saint Samson, founder of Dol in Brittany, have received very different historical treatments. The Breton author of the 'Vita prima Samsonis' claimed that he was writing around a century after Samson’s death, using an earlier Life written by the saint’s cousin kept in a monastery in Cornwall. This has stimulated enormous debate, for these claims would make the 'Vita prima' a unique source for early Brittany.

The Life was expanded in the ninth century, but the numerous additions of this 'Vita secunda' have been dismissed as commonplace fictions of no historical value. It is clear, however, that although saints’ Lives ostensibly narrate the past, they were often created to express the contemporary ambitions of religious institutions. The 'Vita secunda Samsonis' is no exception. Created in the 860s, when Dol attempted to establish itself as an archbishopric, its author asserted that the archiepiscopal privileges Dol now desired had been actually been bestowed by the legendary kings of the sixth century.

This paper suggests that understanding how the rewriter went about this task reveals a hagiographical strategy that has implications for our reading of other early hagiography, particularly the debated 'Vita prima'. It argues that contemporary politics and ambitions similarly necessitated that Life’s creation and offers new perspectives on the dating of the text, its claims to pre-existing source material, and the earliest ambitions of the cult of St Samson.

in: Franziska Schnoor, Karl Schmuki, Ernst Tremp, Peter Erhart, Jakob Kuratli Hüeblin (eds.), Gallus und seine Zeit. Leben, Wirken, Nachleben (Monasterium Sancti Galli 7), St. Gallen: Verlag am Klosterhof 2015, pp. 65-97.

PLEASE DON'T HESITATE TO CONTACT ME IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN THIS ARTICLE: adiem@syr.edu

Summary

This contribution analyzes the two versions of the Vita Galli written by Wetti and Walahfrid Strabo as sources on the transformations of monastic ideals in the period of the Carolingian monastic reforms and as documents for the integration of the monastery of St. Gallen into Carolingian political structures. I argue that both texts can be read productively as monastic ‘rules’ presented in a narrative form. While telling almost the same story about Gallus’ life and the early history of St. Gallen, Wetti and Walahfrid construct two different types of saints who embody different monastic ideals. Wetti presents his Gallus as a traditional Vir Dei similar to those we can find in Gregory of Tours’ Liber Vitae Patrum. Walahfrid turns Gallus and his followers into a monks who on the one hand embodied many aspects of the Regula Benedicti and on the other hand represented the ideals of the Carolingian monastic reforms: a child oblate with a proper inner-monastic education, trained in the disciplina regularis whose career closely followed the canonical rules and who used his profound artes-education to teach and produce exegesis for the rulers.

Instead of continuing the futile discussion whether or not there was a historical Irish monk Gallus who belonged to the followers of Columban, I suggest to draw lines between the Regula Columbani as it manifests itself in the rules ascribed to Columbanus but, maybe even more, in Jonas of Bobbio’s Vita Columbani and the Carolingian monastic ideal that Gallus came to embody in Walahfrid’s Vita Galli. St. Gallen may have transformed itself from martyr shrine and outpost of episcopal rule into a ‘Columbanian’ monastery during the Carolingian period, by claiming a past that links the monastery to Columbanus, but also by adopting a monastic ideal that is rooted in the Columbanian movement.

The last part of this chapter analyzes the series of healing miracles that Walahfrid Strabo added to his version of the Vita Galli. These miracula convey yet another aspect of sainthood which is in line with the ‘Columbanian’ ideal. Almost all of them take place in or around the monastic church and in connection with a liturgical act performed either by members of the monastic community or the community as a whole. The saint himself moves to the background, the community the space become the major agents of sanctity. Gallus adopts the role of an old janitor who appears in dreams in order to send people in search of healing to the right space and the right people: the monastic church and the praying monks. In that sense, the miracula in Walahfrid Strabo’s Vita Galli could be read as a Klosterplan in narrative disguise.

Gli atti del processo di canonizzazione di san Ludovico di Tolosa delineano un ritratto dell'infanzia e della giovinezza del santo sostanzialmente conforme alla tradizione medievale del puer senex, contrassegnato dalla precoce manifestazione delle virtù che innalzeranno il principe angioino agli altari. Non si discostano molto dagli atti processuali le Vitae composte all'indomani della canonizzazione (1317) e fino alla fine del secolo XIV. Tuttavia nel dossier agiografico primitivo Ludovico si caratterizza piuttosto come santo-vescovo e/o come santo-frate. L'ambito tematico del puer senex sembra invece evolversi in maniera originale e inaspettata nell'agiografia ludoviciana delle epoche successive. L'obiettivo è dunque quello di tracciare le linee di sviluppo di tale topos letterario a partire dallo studio delle deposizioni processuali e dei testi agiografici medievali, per passare all'analisi di quelli che si possono considerare due degli snodi fondamentali della memoria di san Ludovico nelle età moderna e contemporanea: la Vita scritta dall'erudito Enrico Sedulio nei primi anni del Seicento e  la biografia composta dall'ecclesiastico Célestin Vielle negli anni Trenta del Novecento.

La bataille de Tolbiac a été d'abord narrée dans l'Historia Francorum de Grégoire de Tours, reprise vers 642 par Jonas de Bobbio dans la Vita Vedasti, elle-même réécrite par Alcuin peu après 796. La présente étude compare les niveaux de langue de ces trois récits composés respectivement aux vie, viie et viie siècles. Cette étude se concentre sur un secteur bien précis de la langue : la topologie, et, plus précisément encore, sur la disjonction, élément encore peu investi par les études portant sur la transition entre le latin tardif et le latin médiéval, plus précisément entre le latin mérovingien et le latin carolingien. A travers ce bref corpus, il semblerait que cette figure se décline en plusieurs types qui concourent, chacun à sa manière, à marquer les niveaux de langues en latin tardif. Par leur fréquence et leur variété, par leur dimension pragmatique ou littéraire plus ou moins nette, les disjonctions pourraient constituer un indicateur de niveaux de langue plus net que la morphologie et des tours analytiques. Elles invitent ainsi à approfondir l'examen de la topologie des constituants de la phrase pour contribuer à la vaste étude de la transition entre le latin tardif et les langues romanes.

The Battle of Tolbiac was first described in the Historia Francorum by Gregory of Tours. The text was rearranged around 642 by Jonas of Bobbio in his Vita Vedasti, which was itself rewritten by Alcuin shortly after 796. The study compares the language registers of these three texts, which were written respectively in the 6th, 7th and 8th centuries, and focusses on topology and disjunction. Little attention has been given to disjunction by scholars mapping the transition from Late to Medieval Latin, specifically from Merovingian to Carolingian Latin. In this small corpus the structure takes various forms, each of which contributes in its own way to distinguishing language registers. Through their frequency and variety and their pragmatic or literary dimension (which is more or less clear), disjunctions could be better indicators of language registers than morphology and analytical structures. The importance of disjunctions should lead to closer study of the topology of sentence constituents, which in turn will influence work on the transition from Late Latin to Romance languages.