Analecta Bollandiana

The manuscript described and analyzed in this study (copy code number: Paris, IRHT, CP 438) belongs to private collectors. It is a twelfth-century legendary, coming from the Abbey of Saint Pantaleon in Cologne. Noticed at the time of its sale at Sotheby's in 2013 for the quality of its decoration and its good state of conservation, the manuscript is especially remarkable for its particular composition, result of successive reworkings. It also contains numerous texts that were still recent at the time they were copied, including rare pieces such as the Vita Heriberti by Rupert of Deutz. One also notes the presence of several unpublished documents, including a very enlightening letter on the suspicious death of Bishop Frederick of Liège († 1121).

The article presents the first edition of a pseudo-Chrysostomian homily, preserved in a Greek manuscript written between 869 and 879: Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, B II 15. The homily deals with the religious heroism of the Old Testament Patriarch Job and, incidentally, with the uncompleted sacrifice of Abraham; it seems to have been preached on the eve of Easter. In the introduction we discuss the Basel manuscript, as well as the link between our homily and the other pseudo-Chrysostomian sermon De beato Abraham (CPG 4514). The Greek text is accompanied by our French translation and by a Latin translation from the hand of the humanist John Oecolampadius (aka Johannes Hussgen), made in 1523.

Gautier, canon of the abbey of Arrouaise, wrote between 1162 and 1177 a Translation of Saint Monica that made him, in a way, the inventor of Monica’s cult. For the most part, the Translation narrates in detail Gautier’s journey to Ostia and the many difficulties he faced. This makes the text also a milestone as regards the affirmation of the person and his feelings in medieval writing, if not in the development of the autobiographical genre. The article offers a new commented edition and translation of this astonishing text.