Abstract This article traces the use of the word avaritia (‘greed’) within Bede’s corpus of exegetical and historical writings. In the Epistola ad Ecgbertum , Bede depicts the Northumbrian church as fundamentally flawed due to the avaritia of bishops who collect money from their parishioners without providing pastoral care. While this use of avaritia is, generally, much more specific than in his exegetical texts, we will argue here that his concerns about clerical greed emerge gradually throughout the latter half of his career. We focus especially on how the Historia ecclesiastica only mentions avaritia three times, each in reference to Irish clerics who did not possess greed. We contend that Bede’s use of avaritia in the Historia prefigures the reform proposed in the Epistola by providing a solution from the past: return to the model of the Irish missionaries to Northumbria who so embodied Gregorian ideals.
Abstract This review article examines Multi-disciplinary Approaches to Medieval Brittany, 450–1200: Connections and Disconnections (edited by Caroline Brett, Paul Russell, and Fiona Edmonds), assessing how the volume integrates archaeological, historical, linguistic, and hagiographical evidence to re-evaluate Brittany’s place between the Insular world and the Continent during the early and central Middle Ages. In particular, the review highlights and discusses the book’s important contribution to current debates on migration, cultural interactions, and identity formation in both Brittany specifically and medieval north-western Europe more widely.
Abstract The publication of memoirs by two of the most eminent historians of Late Antiquity (one Irish, the other English) offers a unique insight into the formation of these two scholars and their respective backgrounds. The similarities are many, but there are interesting differences as well.
Abstract This article explores the glosses of the Wolfenbüttel Priscian manuscripts, specifically examining possible links to the Celtic/Insular glossing tradition on Priscian’s Ars grammatica. Utilising methodological frameworks of the digital humanities and philology as well as building upon foundational work by scholars like Franck Cinato, the analysis traces the connection of the Wolfenbüttel manuscripts to both independent scholarship and the collective annotation practices of the time. By examining parallel glosses, the study places one of the Wolfenbüttel manuscripts in close relation with the Insular/Celtic glossing tradition.
Abstract The social roles of women form the broad focus of this paper. An attempt is made to use what we know about particular aspects of medieval Irish society (especially concerning the status of women, the role of fosterage and the position of the banḟili and of other female types of versifier) from various sources, mainly legal, to give a suggested context to a possibly fictional figure from Cath Cairn Chonaill . This is a significant, if somewhat overlooked, prosimetric tract from medieval Ireland. The approach employed sheds light on the character of Sinech Cró, who is a central figure in the text, and makes the case for her historical plausibility. A deeper appreciation of how Sinech might have been viewed by a contemporary audience will help enhance our comprehension of Cath Cairn Chonaill today, giving us a more rounded overall understanding of the text.
Abstract This article provides synoptic tables and critical editions of the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin alphabet material preserved in the medieval Irish grammatical treatise Auraicept na nÉces (‘The Scholars’ Primer’). The editorial challenges posed by this material are considerable; the existing editions have left many questions open. The editions and tables in this article provide unprecedented coverage of the extant material and a discussion which attempts to situate it in a broader European setting and shed light on the internal transmission.
Abstract The Collectio canonum Hibernensis is a collection originating in eighth-century Ireland of just under seventy books of what is generally called canon law. Some manuscripts include a theoretical reflection on the definition of law. Scholars have questioned to what extent early medieval canon law, and specifically this collection, conforms to law in a meaningful sense. Inspired by H. L. A. Hart’s concept of law, seminal in contemporary legal theory, this article argues laws can be understood only from a participant perspective or ‘internal point of view’. The way the words ius, lex , and canon are used throughout the collection points to the presence of this perspective. The article thus makes the case for treating the Hibernensis as canon law.
Abstract This article argues that the fragment of text found at the top of Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, Adv. MS 72.1.26, fol. 1 ra contains the end of an anecdote involving the temptation of a monk by a noblewoman. Versions of the tale are also found in London, British Library, MS Egerton 92, fols 27 va 3– b 46 and Paris, Bibiothèque nationale de France, MS celtique 1, fols 28 va 1– b 38. An edition and translation are provided of this anecdote and a similar temptation tale found in London, BL, MS Egerton 92, fols 27 ra 37–27 va 2, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawl. B.512, fols 140 va 13– b 22, and Leabhar Breac, p. 242 b .
Abstract The special character of the hagiography for saints Brigid and Patrick and the veneration of these two saints in Ireland is well-established. But there remains overlooked evidence for understanding their cults in one little-known source, the earliest surviving missal from the monastery of Bobbio, today Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, MS D 84 inf. This manuscript, dating to around 900, displays the earliest surviving masses for both Patrick and Brigid. In this article, both texts are edited and the continental and Irish parallels established. The origins and transmission of both masses are examined. In particular, the proper preface for Brigid is shown to be an otherwise completely unknown liturgical text, of ‘Gallican’ character, which assimilates Brigid with the Virgin Mary to an extent that is beyond her Latin hagiography. With these texts, the article underscores the vibrancy of Irish liturgical composers, the implication of Ireland within broader transformations of the liturgy in the early medieval West, and the contributions of peregrini on the continent.
Abstract This article revisits the question of classical influence on the early Irish immrama . Both Revelation and Vergil’s Georgics are proposed as potential models for imagery and scenes of prophecy in Immram Brain . Relationships between classical literature, biblical exegesis, and the Irish voyage tale tradition are also explored in Immram Curaig Máile Dúin and Merugud Uilixis .
Abstract Bede highlighted the Lindisfarne bishoprics of Fínán and Colmán (651–664) as a time when Anglo-Saxon students travelled to Ireland for free education. That period in the middle of his reign (642–670) suggests that Bede was identifying King Oswiu’s educational policy for his recently converted subjects. Oswiu was bilingual and bi-cultural, and ‘considered that nothing was better than what they [the Gaels] had taught’ ( HE 3.25). The Gaelic learning available to Anglo-Saxon students in the middle third of the seventh century can be illustrated through the Paschal letter by a certain Cummian ( c . 632), texts composed by contemporary sapientes such as Laidcenn (†661), Cuimmíne Fota (†662), and Ailerán (†665), and includes anonymous texts used by Bede in his works on computus and chronology, among other topics.
