medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
From: John Dillon <[log in to unmask]>
> On Tuesday, August 3, 2010, at 8:56 am, christopher crockett wrote:
>> From: John Dillon <[log in to unmask]>
>>> 5) Betharius of Chartres (d. early 7th cent.)....(also Boetharius; in
French, Béthaire or Bohaire)
>> the illustrious Canon Yves Delaporte of Chartres calls him "Bertharius"
>> http://ariadne.org/cc/bishops/bishops.html
>> assuming that someone did not make a typo.
> As someone prone to committing typos but also having read the editions in
the AA.SS. and the MGH of our principal source for B., his early ninth-century
Vita, in both of which the saint's name is given as Betharius (whence in other
treatments he is also overwhelmingly called Betharius), and considering as
well the absence of an 'r' in B.'s French-language appellations Béthaire and
Bohaire, I rather suspect that the discrepancy here is not down to a typo.
funny, given what you say about the AASS & MGH versions of the name, i would
have thought the opposite --that we are dealing with a typo (Delaporte to the
webpage, made by the site owner).
and yet:
> In general terms, the standard form of the saint's name when borne by other
people is Bertharius (as in, e.g., the cases of king Bertharius, the father of
St. Radegund, or St. Bertharius the martyred abbot of Montecassino). That
being so, it seems much more plausible to suppose that Canon Delaporte was
normalizing B.'s name form,
what the hell does "normalizing" mean in this context?
>either on general principles or because the later Chartrian documents with
which he was familiar had already so normalized it.
my memory is that he was working from (among others) an ancient list of the
Bishops of Chartres --i cannot remember how old that list was, but certainly
post-Merovingian.
the "later Chartrian documents" could have been anything at all.
> For another instance of such normalization with regard to this B., see T.
Scott Holmes, _The Origin & Development of the Christian Church in Gaul During
the First Six Centuries of the Christian Era (London: Macmillan, 1911), p.
554, n. 2, where the author after calling B. "Bertharius, bishop of Chartres"
immediately cites the MGH edition of the Vita (which, as noted above, spells
B.'s name as Betharius):
> http://tinyurl.com/2a5y2k2
yes, now you've got me totally confused.
how does adding an "r" "normalize" the name?
c
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