medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
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.
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, either on general principles or because the later Chartrian documents with which he was familiar had already so normalized it.
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
Best,
John Dillon
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