Gripla - 20.12.2005, Qupperneq 46

GRIPLA44
Pseudo-Abdian Peter legends (or texts based on them), as well as the late-ninth-century
Vita S. Clementis of Johannes Diaconus and Bishop Gaudericus Veliternus (BHL
1851), especially for the account of the translatio of Clement’s body (Post.:150-151),
but deviated significantly from these sources.63
Martin of Tours (AM 645): A compilation of parts of the works of Sulpicius
Severus (c. 363-420?). Chapters 1-24 (Unger): Vita S. Martini (BHL 5610); Chapter
25: Epistula ad Eusebium (BHL 5611); Chapters 26-52: Dialogi II and III (BHL 5615
and 5616).64
Matthias (AM 630): Kirby (1980:34) identifies the source of some of the material in
the first part of the saga as a 9th-century sermon by Autpertus, abbot of Monte Cassino
(BHL 5695), but the sermon and the saga share only minor similarities, possibly
derived in both cases from common traditions concerning St. Matthias (Isidore, the
Actus Apostolorum, the Gospel of Luke) known to medieval writers prior to the com-
position of several late-twelfth century works by Lambertus Parvus a Legia, monk of
the monastery of St. Matthias at Trier (a metrical version of Matthias’ vita and mira-
cula, a prose vita, and a prose re-working of the translatio, inventio, and miracula
included in his metrical work). The Handlist 325 suggests that Lambertus’ work was
the source of the saga, but according to Collings 1969:61, the Icelandic version is
probably based on a manuscript source containing accounts similar to those found in
MS. 98 of the monastic library at Trier (BHL 5698, which was erroneously ascribed to
Lambertus by the Bollandists). The saga also show strong parallels at points with the
Legenda Aurea account of Matthias’ life, and it must be considered whether the Ice-
landic homilist and Jacobus Voragine (d.1298) were working from the same source
(most likely Bede), or whether the Icelandic saga is a sufficiently late addition to the
AM 652/630 4to collection to allow it to have had recourse to the Legenda Aurea (if it
had indeed originally existed in AM 652 4to at all).65
The epitomes have been published in Dressel 1859. The first of Dressel’s epitomae has also
been published under the title Epitome de Gestis S. Petri in PG 2:469-604 (from the edition
in Cotelier 1672). In these epitomes, as in the AM 645 4to Clemens saga, the theological
discussions that form such a significant part of the Recognitions are abridged in favor of
strictly narrative elements, although apparently to a lesser degree than in the AM 645 4to
Clemens saga.
63 Anne Holtsmark (1938) had suggested that the 645 text „must be a translation of a medieval
adaptation“ of the Recognitions. Hofmann (1997:156) states that it is certain that the com-
piler of Clement’s saga used Johannes/Gaudericus, but his findings that the compiler used
that text and others very freely echoes both Holtsmark and Unger (1874:xvi), suggesting that
its sources still require reassessment.
64 Foote 1962:20 gives a list of the sources of the different recensions of the Icelandic saga of
St. Martin.
65 Jacobus mentions the interpretations of Jerome, Bede, and Dionysus (Paul’s disciple) con-
cerning Matthias’ election. To Bede (or variously, Augustine) is ascribed a Sermo in Natale
Sancti Matthiae; this is referred to by Jacobus when he says that the „life of Saint Matthias,