medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
From: Ms B M Cook <[log in to unmask]>
> Does anyone know if an edition of the Letters of Peter the Venerable, Abbot
of Cluny was published before Migne brought out vol 189 of the "Patrologia
Latina" in 1854 ?
> I do not have a copy of the Giles Constable edition to check the
bibliography.
cracking my copy of Constable last night, i found that his chapter II (of vol.
II), "The Text Tradition" (pp. 44ff) is a reminder of why i have thought for
many decades --every damned time i have dipped into it, actually-- that his
ed. of Peter's letters is one of the finest and most exemplary works of
historical scholarship to be published in the 20th century (which is to say,
ever).
to Cut to the Chase, he is of the opinion that the 1522 Paris ed. remains (or
remained, until his present one) the best, and he supplies what amounts to an
excellent (as it is termed in the trade) "analytical bibliography" description
of this book --transcription of the title page & colphons (2), complete
contents, collation, the Whole Nine Yards.
he finds it superior to the second edition (Paris, 1614) "in the Bibliotheca
Cluniacensis, edited by Martin Marrier with the assistance of Andre Duchesne"
because "they could find no manuscript of the letters [and] had to reprint,
with some changes, the text of the 1522 edition."
the Bibl. Clun. "was reissued at Macon in 1915 in a typographical (not
anastatic) facsimile, with a few corrections in such maners as pagination but
no changes in the text."
"The collection of letters was reprinted from the Bibliotheca Cluniacensis in
Volume XXII of the Maxima bibliotheca veterum patrum published at Lyons in
1677 and in Volume CLXXXIX of the Patrologia latina of Migne, who identified a
few more quotations and expanded the appendix to a total of twenty-two
letters."
he notes "many reprints of individual letters and groups of letters" by
Duchesne (in Volume IV of his Historiae Francorum scriptores), Brial (30 in
vol. XV of the RHGF, Canivez (2 in Volume I of his Statuta capitulorum
generalium ordinis Cisterciensis)..."
"All these editions and fragmentary reprints derive ultimately from the
edition of 1522, of which the accuracy has long been questioned by
scholars.... Schonbach, Sejourne, Wilmart, D'Alverny, and Knowles.... but
"These scholars in fact underestimated the merits of the edition of 1522,
which was based upon an excellent manuscript and is remarkably accurate for an
edition of that date. It is a rare book, however, and the text has suffered in
the process of reprinting. Even the Bibliotheca Cluniacensis, in spite of the
care and ability of its editors, has an average of at least one error a
page[!], and these are multiplied in the Maxima bibliotheca and Patrologia
latina. As a result, the current text of the letters of Peter the Venerable
contains a number of errors and minor textual corruptions."
i have scanned the pages of this chapter which deal with the printed editions
and the manuscripts containing the complete collection of the letters and can
send a copy, as a rather heavy (3.5Mb) .pdf, to anyone wishing one.
really astonishing erudition, is Constable's work.
just a pleasure to read.
best,
c
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