medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On Wednesday, October 1, 2008, at 9:03 am, christopher crockett wrote:
> From: John Dillon <[log in to unmask]>
>
> >5) Amatus of Nusco (d. 1093). Less is known about today's less well known
> saint of the Regno than was true when the Bollandists first published
> Augusti
> tomus VI. of the _Acta Sanctorum_....
>
>
> this is not encouraging news for us younger folk who have always Accepted
> without Question the Doctrine of Progress in Scholarship.
I would think it progress to learn that a Vita on which scholarship had relied for the date of someone's death was demonstrably wrong in that and in so many other particulars that its reliability as a biographic source was now nil. Awareness of ignorance is usually preferable to false knowledge.
> making fun of 19th c. scholars is an attractive and consistently ego-enhancing
> Cottage Industry.
Aug. tom. VI. of the AA.SS. appeared in 1737. And it is not making fun of someone to observe that evidence on which that someone had relied has since been shown to be worthless.
> if, in future, even Less is known of even the Lesser Known Saints of the
> Regno, the very Foundations of our Knowledge of the Past will surely be
> threatened and, perhaps, some will start to wonder where the hell the
> Regno
> actually *is*.
The territories of the former mostly mainland Kingdom of Sicily at their greatest extent plus papal Benevento (since moderns who use the terms 'Regno' and 'regnicoli' often fail to make an exception for it).
Best,
John Dillon
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