Radboud University Nijmegen is advertising a position for a Postdoctoral Researcher in Medieval M... more Radboud University Nijmegen is advertising a position for a Postdoctoral Researcher in Medieval Manuscript Studies (0.8FTE) to be part of the research team of the ERC-funded project Patristic Sermons in the Middle Ages. The dissemination, manipulation and interpretation of Late-Antique sermons in the Medieval Latin West (PASSIM). The Postdoctoral Researcher will study the customisation of patristic sermon collections for use in the liturgy and Divine Office in medieval manuscripts from the 7t..
The present article provides a new critical edition of Augustine’s sermo ad populum 168, together... more The present article provides a new critical edition of Augustine’s sermo ad populum 168, together with a study of the transmission of the Quinquaginta homiliae, a collection of sermons attributed to Augustine, but heavily influenced by the interventions of Caesarius of Arles (ca. 470-542). The actual stemmatical analysis, using variant readings provided by s. 168, is preceded by an overview of known direct Quinquaginta witnesses dating prior to the thirteenth century. The stemma resulting from the analysis leads to a selection of five Quinquaginta witnesses, which we suggest offer a balanced representation for establishing a critical text of sermons transmitted in this collection.
The Latin sermons preached by the Fathers of the Early Church – Augustine, Gregory, Leo – and the... more The Latin sermons preached by the Fathers of the Early Church – Augustine, Gregory, Leo – and their contemporaries had a dynamic and complex medieval afterlife. Throughout the Middle Ages, they circulated in manuscript form, usually as part of collections of patristic preaching. Both the collections and the sermons themselves were heavily manipulated as part of their medieval reception. Additionally, they circulated alongside (and became intertwined with) an enormous corpus of pseudo-epigraphic sermons that were attributed to one of the authoritative Fathers but of which the origin, whether Late-Antique or Medieval, is uncertain.<br> The ERC-funded PASSIM project (2019-2023) aims at charting and analysing the complex interrelations between the manuscripts transmitting patristic sermon collections, and between the texts they contain, through the development of a database and web application. In due course, these digital tools will grant access to the corpus' complex researc...
This volume contains the proceedings of the conference “Ministerium Sermonis. An International Co... more This volume contains the proceedings of the conference “Ministerium Sermonis. An International Colloquium on North African Patristic Sermons” (Malta, 8-10 April 2015) and hopes to give a new impetus to the study of late antique African preaching.
Handelingen - Koninklijke Zuid-Nederlandse Maatschappij voor Taal- en Letterkunde en Geschiedenis
Julius Caesar Scaliger (1484-1558), mostly known to us for his poetic theory, the PoeticesLibri S... more Julius Caesar Scaliger (1484-1558), mostly known to us for his poetic theory, the PoeticesLibri Septem, is the author of an extensive, though largely unstudied poetic oeuvre. Thiscontribution treats the fifth satire, titled Conviva, in his collection Teretismata, and strivesspecifically to analyze the development and representation of the satiric persona in thisspecimen of cena-literature. In accordance with the insights of the persona theory, the‘voice’ in the satire is not interpreted as a mirror of the author’s point of view, but as afunctional poetic construction. Using the text as a point of departure, we investigate theevolution of the persona, how he is influenced by the surrounding scene, the author’s ownhidden agenda, the literary tradition through intertextual allusions to the Roman satiristsin order to finally reach a conclusion regarding the effect of the persona on the messageand interpretation of the satire.
La controverse carolingienne sur la double predestination. Histoire, textes, manuscrits, 11 oktob... more La controverse carolingienne sur la double predestination. Histoire, textes, manuscrits, 11 oktober 2013
Radboud University Nijmegen is advertising a position for a Postdoctoral Researcher in Medieval M... more Radboud University Nijmegen is advertising a position for a Postdoctoral Researcher in Medieval Manuscript Studies (0.8FTE) to be part of the research team of the ERC-funded project Patristic Sermons in the Middle Ages. The dissemination, manipulation and interpretation of Late-Antique sermons in the Medieval Latin West (PASSIM). The Postdoctoral Researcher will study the customisation of patristic sermon collections for use in the liturgy and Divine Office in medieval manuscripts from the 7t..
The present article provides a new critical edition of Augustine’s sermo ad populum 168, together... more The present article provides a new critical edition of Augustine’s sermo ad populum 168, together with a study of the transmission of the Quinquaginta homiliae, a collection of sermons attributed to Augustine, but heavily influenced by the interventions of Caesarius of Arles (ca. 470-542). The actual stemmatical analysis, using variant readings provided by s. 168, is preceded by an overview of known direct Quinquaginta witnesses dating prior to the thirteenth century. The stemma resulting from the analysis leads to a selection of five Quinquaginta witnesses, which we suggest offer a balanced representation for establishing a critical text of sermons transmitted in this collection.
The Latin sermons preached by the Fathers of the Early Church – Augustine, Gregory, Leo – and the... more The Latin sermons preached by the Fathers of the Early Church – Augustine, Gregory, Leo – and their contemporaries had a dynamic and complex medieval afterlife. Throughout the Middle Ages, they circulated in manuscript form, usually as part of collections of patristic preaching. Both the collections and the sermons themselves were heavily manipulated as part of their medieval reception. Additionally, they circulated alongside (and became intertwined with) an enormous corpus of pseudo-epigraphic sermons that were attributed to one of the authoritative Fathers but of which the origin, whether Late-Antique or Medieval, is uncertain.<br> The ERC-funded PASSIM project (2019-2023) aims at charting and analysing the complex interrelations between the manuscripts transmitting patristic sermon collections, and between the texts they contain, through the development of a database and web application. In due course, these digital tools will grant access to the corpus' complex researc...
This volume contains the proceedings of the conference “Ministerium Sermonis. An International Co... more This volume contains the proceedings of the conference “Ministerium Sermonis. An International Colloquium on North African Patristic Sermons” (Malta, 8-10 April 2015) and hopes to give a new impetus to the study of late antique African preaching.
Handelingen - Koninklijke Zuid-Nederlandse Maatschappij voor Taal- en Letterkunde en Geschiedenis
Julius Caesar Scaliger (1484-1558), mostly known to us for his poetic theory, the PoeticesLibri S... more Julius Caesar Scaliger (1484-1558), mostly known to us for his poetic theory, the PoeticesLibri Septem, is the author of an extensive, though largely unstudied poetic oeuvre. Thiscontribution treats the fifth satire, titled Conviva, in his collection Teretismata, and strivesspecifically to analyze the development and representation of the satiric persona in thisspecimen of cena-literature. In accordance with the insights of the persona theory, the‘voice’ in the satire is not interpreted as a mirror of the author’s point of view, but as afunctional poetic construction. Using the text as a point of departure, we investigate theevolution of the persona, how he is influenced by the surrounding scene, the author’s ownhidden agenda, the literary tradition through intertextual allusions to the Roman satiristsin order to finally reach a conclusion regarding the effect of the persona on the messageand interpretation of the satire.
La controverse carolingienne sur la double predestination. Histoire, textes, manuscrits, 11 oktob... more La controverse carolingienne sur la double predestination. Histoire, textes, manuscrits, 11 oktober 2013
The Physiologus is an ancient Christian collection of astonishing stories about animals, stones, ... more The Physiologus is an ancient Christian collection of astonishing stories about animals, stones, and plants that serve as positive or negative models for Christians. Written originally in Greek, the Physiologus was translated in ancient times into Latin, Armenian, Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopic, Georgian, Arabic, and Old Slavonic. Throughout its transformations and adaptations, the Physiologus has never lost its attraction. The present volume offers an introduction to the significance of the Greek text, a new examination of its manuscript tradition, and a completely revised state of the art for each of the ancient translations. Two chapters of the Physiologus, on the pelican and on the panther, are edited in Greek and in each translation; these editions are accompanied by a new English rendering of the edited texts as well as short interpretative essays concerning the two animals.
Table of Contents
Reflections on Editing Commentaries on Authoritative Texts (Shari Boodts, Piet... more Table of Contents
Reflections on Editing Commentaries on Authoritative Texts (Shari Boodts, Pieter De Leemans & Stefan Schorn) Plurality of Redactions and Access to the Original: Editing John of Jandun’s Questions on Aristotle’s Rhetoric (Iacopo Costa) Hippocrates at Montpellier (Michael McVaugh) Textual Features and Editorial Challenges Posed by the Liber glossarum: Some Remarks on the Quotations from Augustine's De Genesi ad litteram (Marina Giani) Editing Anonymous Voices: The scholia uetera to the Iliad (Fausto Montana) Unlocking the sacra pagina: Editing the Biblical Gloss with the Help of its Medieval Users (Alexander Andrée) Editing the Lemmata of Galen’s Commentary on the Hippocratic Aphorisms, Book 5 (Giulia Ecca) Editing Lemmas in the Second Book of Proclus’ In Timaeum (Lorenzo Ferroni & Gerd Van Riel) Helpful Interactions between Commentary and Text: Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics and Important Manuscripts of this Treatise (Christian Brockmann) Critically Editing a So-Called “Sentences Commentary” (Monica Brînzei & Chris Schabel) The Past, the Others, Himself: The Open Dialogue of a Medieval Legal Author with his Text (Sara Menzinger) The Authority of Being Useful: Servius on and off the Page (James H. Brusuelas) Papyrus Commentaries on the Iliad (Lara Pagani)
The cultural and religious history from Antiquity through the Renaissance may be read through the... more The cultural and religious history from Antiquity through the Renaissance may be read through the lens of the rise and demise of auctoritates. Throughout this long period of about two millennia, many historical persons have been considered as exceptionally authoritative. Obviously, this authority derived from their personal achievements. But one does not become an authority on one’s own. In many cases, the way an authority’s achievements were received and disseminated by their contemporaries and later generations, was the determining factor in the construction of their authority. This volume focuses on the latter aspect: what are the mechanisms and strategies by which participants in intellectual life at large have shaped the authority of historical persons? On what basis, why and how were some persons singled out above their peers as exceptional auctoritates and by which processes did this continue (or discontinue) over time? What imposed geographical or other limits on the development and expansion of a person’s auctoritas? Which circumstances led to the disintegration of the authority of persons previously considered to be authoritative? The case-studies in this volume reflect the dazzling variety of trajectories, concerns, actors and factors that contributed over a time span of two millennia to the fashioning of the postmortem and lasting authority of historical persons.
This volume contains the proceedings of the conference “Ministerium Sermonis. An International Co... more This volume contains the proceedings of the conference “Ministerium Sermonis. An International Colloquium on North African Patristic Sermons” (Malta, 8-10 April 2015) and hopes to give a new impetus to the study of late antique African preaching.
Sancti Aurelii Augustini Sermones in epistolas apostolicas II, id est sermones CLVII-CLXXXIII sec... more Sancti Aurelii Augustini Sermones in epistolas apostolicas II, id est sermones CLVII-CLXXXIII secundum ordinem vulgatum insertis etiam aliquot sermonibus post Maurinos repertis, recensuit Shari Boodts, cuius seriei undecim sermones ediderunt François Dolbeau, Gert Partoens, Mon Torfs, Clemens Weidmann (Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina XLI Bb), Turnhout: Brepols, 2016
Augustine of Hippo (354-430) is one of the great authorities of the Early Church. His impact on w... more Augustine of Hippo (354-430) is one of the great authorities of the Early Church. His impact on western civilisation, during the Middle Ages in particular, cannot be overstated. Today, he is associated mainly with the Confessions and City of God, staples of the western canon. However, throughout the medieval period, his most widely disseminated works were his sermons.
This project will investigate the development of Augustine’s authority and his formative role in medieval culture, not through the lens of the grand treatises that were admired by the intellectual elite, but through an analysis of the circulation, manipulation, and appropriation of his sermons, which were copied in hundreds of medieval manuscripts and read daily as part of the liturgy.
Medieval sermon collections for the liturgy testify to a dynamic reception of Augustine’s preaching, providing unique insights in pre-modern practices of textual transmission, organisation, and appropriation. This project takes a new approach to the complex network of medieval manuscripts, repurposing the traditional heuristic tools of an editor in a methodology that integrates manuscript studies, historical and reception studies, and Digital Humanities.
My anchor point will be the influential 8th-century sermon collection of Alanus of Farfa. Tracing its presence as part of a transnational European network of manuscripts, I will investigate how the Augustinian nucleus in Alanus’ collection was customized in liturgical sermon collections from the 8th to the 15th century. This investigation will follow a key-thread in the tapestry of the medieval religious tradition, showing how ever-changing purposes and contexts determine the selection, alteration, and interpretation of the Augustinian heritage.
Overturning the traditional notion that medieval adaptations are a regrettable contamination of the antique original, this project will demonstrate that the dynamic medieval engagement with the authorities of Late Antiquity is the key to their perception then and now.
(The project will run from 1 October 2018 to 30 September 2022)
PASSIM will study the medieval reception of the Latin sermons preached by the Early Church Father... more PASSIM will study the medieval reception of the Latin sermons preached by the Early Church Fathers, using a digital network of manuscripts.
The sermons of Augustine, Gregory the Great and other patristic preachers were transmitted throughout medieval Europe in the form of sermon collections, preserved in thousands of manuscripts. Nearly every manuscript contains a new combination of sermons, attesting to a continuous, widespread engagement with the authorities of the Early Church. The dynamic tradition of reorganising and rewriting the patristic heritage is largely overlooked by scholars of medieval religious practices, who concentrate on medieval preachers, and by scholars of Early Christianity, whose focus is the patristic context.
Medieval collections of patristic sermons were part of the liturgical life of the monastery, but also of an intellectual tradition. They offer unique insights into medieval attitudes toward authority, techniques of appropriation, church organisation, monastic networks and knowledge exchange. PASSIM will execute the first large-scale analysis of the formation and spread of patristic sermon collections in medieval Europe. The project will develop a digital network of manuscripts, using well-tried principles from the field of textual criticism. Building on this network, PASSIM will pursue three lines of inquiry: the customizing of standard liturgical collections as indicative of individual purposes and contexts, the impact of transmission on the popularity of patristic sermons, and pseudo-epigraphic sermons as revelatory of medieval perceptions of the Church Fathers.
PASSIM will bridge two disciplinary divides, between patristic and medieval sermon studies and between textual criticism and reception studies. Developing an interdisciplinary methodology with a wide applicability in the study of intellectual history, this project will introduce patristic preaching as a vibrant strand in the tapestry of the medieval religious tradition.
(The project will run from 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2023)
PhD-position at Radboud University Nijmegen, advertised in the context of the MSCA Doctoral Netwo... more PhD-position at Radboud University Nijmegen, advertised in the context of the MSCA Doctoral Network 'MECANO: Mechanics of Canon Formation and the Transmission of Knowledge from Greco-Roman Antiquity’.
MECANO brings together five universities and an array of academic and non-academic institutions interested in the topic of canonicity. MECANO's twofold goal is to develop a new model for the study of canonicity and to train ten PhD researchers to become versatile intellectuals ready to tackle the challenges of modern engagement with the topics of canonicity, diversity, and cultural heritage.
PhD position: 'Recovering Anonymous Late-Antique Preachers in the Corpus of Pseudo-Augustinian Sermons’ (Supervised by Dr Shari Boodts (Radboud Institute for Culture & History) and Prof. Gert Partoens (KU Leuven))
This PhD project centres on the corpus of anonymous late-antique sermons which travelled under the name of Augustine in the medieval manuscript tradition. This project seeks to open up and valorise this important and understudied corpus by describing and analysing the sermons of forgotten late-antique preachers, preserved through their association with Augustine. The project combines expertise in Latin philology and medieval manuscript studies with a focus on digital methods and data science.
The vacancy is open to applicants of all nationalities who comply with the MSCA mobility requirement: not having resided in the Netherlands for more than 12 months in the 36 months preceding appointment. The deadline for application is 31 January 2024
Job offer: Postdoctoral Researcher in Medieval Manuscript Studies (32 hours)
Radboud University ... more Job offer: Postdoctoral Researcher in Medieval Manuscript Studies (32 hours)
Radboud University Nijmegen is advertising a position for a Postdoctoral Researcher in Medieval Manuscript Studies (0.8FTE) to be part of the research team of the ERC-funded project Patristic Sermons in the Middle Ages. The dissemination, manipulation and interpretation of Late-Antique sermons in the Medieval Latin West (PASSIM). The Postdoctoral Researcher will study the dynamic between the transmission and popularity of patristic sermons and sermon collections in medieval contexts, mainly the period prior to the 13th century. This investigation will also address questions regarding the construction of authority and compilation techniques.
Location: Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands Duration: 2 years Starting date: 1 January 2021 (negotiable) Deadline for the application: 20 August 2020 Interviews: 10 September 2020 Contact: Dr. Shari Boodts (PI)
Radboud University Nijmegen is advertising a position for a parttime Research Assistant in Mediev... more Radboud University Nijmegen is advertising a position for a parttime Research Assistant in Medieval Manuscript Studies, to be part of the research teams of the ERC Project Patristic Sermons in the Middle Ages and the NWO Project On the trail of Alanus of Farfa.
The research assistant will contribute to gathering and inputting data on Medieval manuscripts that contain collections of Late-Antique sermons in the projects’ database, using manuscript catalogues and online repositories as sources. He/she will also be expected to undertake field trips to manuscript libraries in Europe and organise the exchange of data on the manuscripts with existing databases and online catalogues.
Location: Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands Duration: 1 year initially, with the possibility of extension up to 3 years Starting date: 1 January 2020 (negotiable) Contract type: Parttime (0,5 FTE) Deadline for the application: 6 October 2019
As a postdoctoral researcher you will be responsible for one of the three subprojects within the ... more As a postdoctoral researcher you will be responsible for one of the three subprojects within the European Research Council (ERC)-funded project Patristic Sermons in the Middle Ages (PASSIM). This project studies the medieval reception of the Latin sermons preached by the Early Church Fathers, through the first large-scale analysis of the formation and spread of patristic sermon collections in medieval Europe. The project is developing a digital network of manuscripts containing collections of patristic sermons. Building on this network, PASSIM pursues three lines of inquiry: the customisation of standard liturgical collections as indicative of individual purposes and contexts, the dynamic between transmission and popularity of patristic sermons, and pseudo-epigraphic sermons as revelatory of medieval perceptions of the Church Fathers.
You will study the customisation of patristic sermon collections for use in the liturgy and Divine Office from the 7th to the 15th century, with a particular emphasis on the Carolingian homiliary of Paul the Deacon and its reception. You will compile and describe a representative collection of manuscripts that transmit (part of) Paul the Deacon's homiliary and use this collection, which will be integrated in the project database, as the basis for an analysis of patristic sermon collections for the liturgy. Your analysis will include topics such as the resources and contexts of the compilers, local customs and evolutions in the liturgy, evidence of intellectual mobility within and between religious orders, programmes of dissemination in the context of religious or intellectual reform, etc.
Your findings should be presented in at least three articles in international scientific journals and several conference papers and book chapters. Additionally, you are expected to contribute to the creation of the project's database. You will also contribute to the organisation of scientific meetings related to the project, the editing of conference proceedings, and the wider communication of the project's results.
Radboud University Nijmegen is advertising a position for a parttime research assistant in Mediev... more Radboud University Nijmegen is advertising a position for a parttime research assistant in Medieval Manuscripts and Late-Antique and Medieval Christianity to be part of the research teams of the ERC Project PASSIM (Patristic Sermons in the Middle Ages. The dissemination, manipulation and interpretation of Late-Antique sermons in the Medieval Latin West), which kicks off on 1 January 2019, and the NWO Project Alanus (On the trail of Alanus of Farfa. Tracing the formation of Augustine’s authority in medieval sermon collections for the liturgy), which commenced on 1 October 2018.
The research assistant will contribute to the gathering of data on Medieval manuscripts that contain collections of Late-Antique sermons, from manuscript catalogues and online repositories. He/she will also be expected to undertake field trips to manuscript libraries in Europe and organise the exchange of data on the manuscripts with existing databases and online catalogues.
Location: Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands Contract: Education/Research Officer, Level 3 Duration: 1 year initially, with the possibility of extension up to 4 years Starting date: 1 February 2019 or as soon as possible thereafter Contract type: Parttime (0,5 FTE) Deadline for the application: 17 December 2018
La prédication, forme principale d’enseignement religieux de l’Antiquité jusqu’à nos jours, touch... more La prédication, forme principale d’enseignement religieux de l’Antiquité jusqu’à nos jours, touche une vaste frange de la population. Elle nous transmet non seulement les propos du prédicateur, mais aussi les attentes du public, puis des lecteurs postérieurs, et plus largement tout un univers de pensée. L’étudier est donc fondamental pour comprendre les sociétés du passé. Parmi les textes prêchés, les sermons chrétiens tardo-antiques et altimédiévaux d’attribution incertaine constituent un ensemble documentaire très peu étudié et qui pourtant permettrait d’élargir nos connaissances sur la prédication de cette période, son contexte de composition, sa transmission manuscrite et son influence sur l’histoire antique et médiévale. Cette journée d’étude vise à promouvoir la recherche sur ces textes. A partir du XVe siècle, avec le développement de l’imprimerie, l’effort d’édition des sermons latins des Pères de l’Église a conduit à exhumer dans les manuscrits médiévaux un nombre important de sermons publiés ensuite sous le nom d’un auteur connu (Ambroise de Milan, Augustin d’Hippone, Fulgence de Ruspe, Jean Chrysostome, Maxime de Turin etc.), souvent sur la base de l’attribution mentionnée dans les manuscrits utilisés. Au fil des siècles, et notamment sous l’impulsion des controverses doctrinales des XVIe et XVIIe siècles, puis des travaux d’érudition jusqu’à nos jours, la critique d’authenticité s’est développée, les corpus de sermons d’auteurs ont été progressivement définis de façon plus nette et de très nombreux sermons publiés ont ainsi été écartés en tant que pseudépigraphes ou anonymes. Suite à ce processus, un ensemble de sermons latins est demeuré d’attribution incertaine et situé hors du champs d’investigation de la majorité des historiens, ne faisant que très rarement l’objet d’éditions critiques et d’études approfondies. Au cours du XXe siècle, les études et éditions de savants bénédictins (notamment Morin, Wilmart, Lambot) et d’autres spécialistes de la prédication latine (Barré, Bouhot, Dolbeau, Étaix, Leroy, Isola, Weidmann), ont pourtant montré tout l’intérêt d’étudier ces sermons et identifié de nombreux textes remontant à l’Antiquité tardive et au haut Moyen Âge. La portée d’une enquête plus approfondie sur ces sermons est double : d’une part, elle permet d’évaluer l’apport de cette documentation à une période historique où la prédication préservée d’auteurs latins chrétiens est modeste (exception faite d’Augustin d’Hippone) ; d’autre part, elle conduit à réfléchir sur les notions d’authenticité et d’attribution, puisque très souvent ces sermons ont reçu des attributions divergentes au cours de leur transmission et de leur publication. De plus, l’usage pratique des sermons, répondant à des besoins divers (liturgie, lecture dévotionnelle etc.), conduisait aussi à tronquer, interpoler et réélaborer les sermons, de la simple adaptation à la compilation de centons. Dans ce cadre, l’étude de la prédication d’attribution incertaine, en particulier de sa transmission manuscrite, permet de s’interroger plus largement sur la pertinence de la notion d’auteur et de corpus, de souligner la fluidité de ces sermons, et d’explorer les pratiques de copie et de lecture dont ils ont fait l’objet. En partant de l’état des travaux, l’objectif de cette journée d'étude est de poursuivre et d’approfondir l’étude des sermons d’attribution incertaine et situés actuellement dans l’Antiquité Tardive et au début du Moyen Âge, du IVe à la fin du VIIIe siècle, dans l’Occident latin (Afrique du Nord et Europe occidentale). Il s’agira de mieux mettre en lumière, sur la base des manuscrits, la circulation et l’utilisation concrète de ces sermons, de s’interroger sur les meilleurs outils à adopter pour leur classification, et enfin de discuter les critères de datation et de localisation utilisés (style, informations sur le contexte historique et intellectuel, texte biblique, canaux de transmission etc.).
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Papers by Shari Boodts
The present volume offers an introduction to the significance of the Greek text, a new examination of its manuscript tradition, and a completely revised state of the art for each of the ancient translations. Two chapters of the Physiologus, on the pelican and on the panther, are edited in Greek and in each translation; these editions are accompanied by a new English rendering of the edited texts as well as short interpretative essays concerning the two animals.
Reflections on Editing Commentaries on Authoritative Texts (Shari Boodts, Pieter De Leemans & Stefan Schorn)
Plurality of Redactions and Access to the Original: Editing John of Jandun’s Questions on Aristotle’s Rhetoric (Iacopo Costa)
Hippocrates at Montpellier (Michael McVaugh)
Textual Features and Editorial Challenges Posed by the Liber glossarum: Some Remarks on the Quotations from Augustine's De Genesi ad litteram (Marina Giani)
Editing Anonymous Voices: The scholia uetera to the Iliad (Fausto Montana)
Unlocking the sacra pagina: Editing the Biblical Gloss with the Help of its Medieval Users (Alexander Andrée)
Editing the Lemmata of Galen’s Commentary on the Hippocratic Aphorisms, Book 5 (Giulia Ecca)
Editing Lemmas in the Second Book of Proclus’ In Timaeum (Lorenzo Ferroni & Gerd Van Riel)
Helpful Interactions between Commentary and Text: Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics and Important Manuscripts of this Treatise (Christian Brockmann)
Critically Editing a So-Called “Sentences Commentary” (Monica Brînzei & Chris Schabel)
The Past, the Others, Himself: The Open Dialogue of a Medieval Legal Author with his Text (Sara Menzinger)
The Authority of Being Useful: Servius on and off the Page (James H. Brusuelas)
Papyrus Commentaries on the Iliad (Lara Pagani)
This project will investigate the development of Augustine’s authority and his formative role in medieval culture, not through the lens of the grand treatises that were admired by the intellectual elite, but through an analysis of the circulation, manipulation, and appropriation of his sermons, which were copied in hundreds of medieval manuscripts and read daily as part of the liturgy.
Medieval sermon collections for the liturgy testify to a dynamic reception of Augustine’s preaching, providing unique insights in pre-modern practices of textual transmission, organisation, and appropriation. This project takes a new approach to the complex network of medieval manuscripts, repurposing the traditional heuristic tools of an editor in a methodology that integrates manuscript studies, historical and reception studies, and Digital Humanities.
My anchor point will be the influential 8th-century sermon collection of Alanus of Farfa. Tracing its presence as part of a transnational European network of manuscripts, I will investigate how the Augustinian nucleus in Alanus’ collection was customized in liturgical sermon collections from the 8th to the 15th century. This investigation will follow a key-thread in the tapestry of the medieval religious tradition, showing how ever-changing purposes and contexts determine the selection, alteration, and interpretation of the Augustinian heritage.
Overturning the traditional notion that medieval adaptations are a regrettable contamination of the antique original, this project will demonstrate that the dynamic medieval engagement with the authorities of Late Antiquity is the key to their perception then and now.
(The project will run from 1 October 2018 to 30 September 2022)
The sermons of Augustine, Gregory the Great and other patristic preachers were transmitted throughout medieval Europe in the form of sermon collections, preserved in thousands of manuscripts. Nearly every manuscript contains a new combination of sermons, attesting to a continuous, widespread engagement with the authorities of the Early Church. The dynamic tradition of reorganising and rewriting the patristic heritage is largely overlooked by scholars of medieval religious practices, who concentrate on medieval preachers, and by scholars of Early Christianity, whose focus is the patristic context.
Medieval collections of patristic sermons were part of the liturgical life of the monastery, but also of an intellectual tradition. They offer unique insights into medieval attitudes toward authority, techniques of appropriation, church organisation, monastic networks and knowledge exchange. PASSIM will execute the first large-scale analysis of the formation and spread of patristic sermon collections in medieval Europe. The project will develop a digital network of manuscripts, using well-tried principles from the field of textual criticism. Building on this network, PASSIM will pursue three lines of inquiry: the customizing of standard liturgical collections as indicative of individual purposes and contexts, the impact of transmission on the popularity of patristic sermons, and pseudo-epigraphic sermons as revelatory of medieval perceptions of the Church Fathers.
PASSIM will bridge two disciplinary divides, between patristic and medieval sermon studies and between textual criticism and reception studies. Developing an interdisciplinary methodology with a wide applicability in the study of intellectual history, this project will introduce patristic preaching as a vibrant strand in the tapestry of the medieval religious tradition.
(The project will run from 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2023)
MECANO brings together five universities and an array of academic and non-academic institutions interested in the topic of canonicity. MECANO's twofold goal is to develop a new model for the study of canonicity and to train ten PhD researchers to become versatile intellectuals ready to tackle the challenges of modern engagement with the topics of canonicity, diversity, and cultural heritage.
PhD position: 'Recovering Anonymous Late-Antique Preachers in the Corpus of Pseudo-Augustinian Sermons’ (Supervised by Dr Shari Boodts (Radboud Institute for Culture & History) and Prof. Gert Partoens (KU Leuven))
This PhD project centres on the corpus of anonymous late-antique sermons which travelled under the name of Augustine in the medieval manuscript tradition. This project seeks to open up and valorise this important and understudied corpus by describing and analysing the sermons of forgotten late-antique preachers, preserved through their association with Augustine. The project combines expertise in Latin philology and medieval manuscript studies with a focus on digital methods and data science.
The vacancy is open to applicants of all nationalities who comply with the MSCA mobility requirement: not having resided in the Netherlands for more than 12 months in the 36 months preceding appointment. The deadline for application is 31 January 2024
Radboud University Nijmegen is advertising a position for a Postdoctoral Researcher in Medieval Manuscript Studies (0.8FTE) to be part of the research team of the ERC-funded project Patristic Sermons in the Middle Ages. The dissemination, manipulation and interpretation of Late-Antique sermons in the Medieval Latin West (PASSIM). The Postdoctoral Researcher will study the dynamic between the transmission and popularity of patristic sermons and sermon collections in medieval contexts, mainly the period prior to the 13th century. This investigation will also address questions regarding the construction of authority and compilation techniques.
Location: Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Duration: 2 years
Starting date: 1 January 2021 (negotiable)
Deadline for the application: 20 August 2020
Interviews: 10 September 2020
Contact: Dr. Shari Boodts (PI)
Full details of the job offer can be found here: https://www.ru.nl/werken-bij/vacature/details-vacature/?recid=1113954&doel=embed&taal=nl
More information on the research project can be found here: https://applejack.science.ru.nl/passimproject/?page=contact
The research assistant will contribute to gathering and inputting data on Medieval manuscripts that contain collections of Late-Antique sermons in the projects’ database, using manuscript catalogues and online repositories as sources. He/she will also be expected to undertake field trips to manuscript libraries in Europe and organise the exchange of data on the manuscripts with existing databases and online catalogues.
Location: Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Duration: 1 year initially, with the possibility of extension up to 3 years
Starting date: 1 January 2020 (negotiable)
Contract type: Parttime (0,5 FTE)
Deadline for the application: 6 October 2019
Full details of the job offer can be found here: https://www.ru.nl/werken-bij/vacature/details-vacature/?recid=1062199&doel=embed&taal=nl
More information on the research projects can be found here: https://applejack.science.ru.nl/passimproject/
You will study the customisation of patristic sermon collections for use in the liturgy and Divine Office from the 7th to the 15th century, with a particular emphasis on the Carolingian homiliary of Paul the Deacon and its reception. You will compile and describe a representative collection of manuscripts that transmit (part of) Paul the Deacon's homiliary and use this collection, which will be integrated in the project database, as the basis for an analysis of patristic sermon collections for the liturgy. Your analysis will include topics such as the resources and contexts of the compilers, local customs and evolutions in the liturgy, evidence of intellectual mobility within and between religious orders, programmes of dissemination in the context of religious or intellectual reform, etc.
Your findings should be presented in at least three articles in international scientific journals and several conference papers and book chapters. Additionally, you are expected to contribute to the creation of the project's database. You will also contribute to the organisation of scientific meetings related to the project, the editing of conference proceedings, and the wider communication of the project's results.
The research assistant will contribute to the gathering of data on Medieval manuscripts that contain collections of Late-Antique sermons, from manuscript catalogues and online repositories. He/she will also be expected to undertake field trips to manuscript libraries in Europe and organise the exchange of data on the manuscripts with existing databases and online catalogues.
Location: Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Contract: Education/Research Officer, Level 3
Duration: 1 year initially, with the possibility of extension up to 4 years
Starting date: 1 February 2019 or as soon as possible thereafter
Contract type: Parttime (0,5 FTE)
Deadline for the application: 17 December 2018
A partir du XVe siècle, avec le développement de l’imprimerie, l’effort d’édition des sermons latins des Pères de l’Église a conduit à exhumer dans les manuscrits médiévaux un nombre important de sermons publiés ensuite sous le nom d’un auteur connu (Ambroise de Milan, Augustin d’Hippone, Fulgence de Ruspe, Jean Chrysostome, Maxime de Turin etc.), souvent sur la base de l’attribution mentionnée dans les manuscrits utilisés. Au fil des siècles, et notamment sous l’impulsion des controverses doctrinales des XVIe et XVIIe siècles, puis des travaux d’érudition jusqu’à nos jours, la critique d’authenticité s’est développée, les corpus de sermons d’auteurs ont été progressivement définis de façon plus nette et de très nombreux sermons publiés ont ainsi été écartés en tant que pseudépigraphes ou anonymes. Suite à ce processus, un ensemble de sermons latins est demeuré d’attribution incertaine et situé hors du champs d’investigation de la majorité des historiens, ne faisant que très rarement l’objet d’éditions critiques et d’études approfondies. Au cours du XXe siècle, les études et éditions de savants bénédictins (notamment Morin, Wilmart, Lambot) et d’autres spécialistes de la prédication latine (Barré, Bouhot, Dolbeau, Étaix, Leroy, Isola, Weidmann), ont pourtant montré tout l’intérêt d’étudier ces sermons et identifié de nombreux textes remontant à l’Antiquité tardive et au haut Moyen Âge.
La portée d’une enquête plus approfondie sur ces sermons est double : d’une part, elle permet d’évaluer l’apport de cette documentation à une période historique où la prédication préservée d’auteurs latins chrétiens est modeste (exception faite d’Augustin d’Hippone) ; d’autre part, elle conduit à réfléchir sur les notions d’authenticité et d’attribution, puisque très souvent ces sermons ont reçu des attributions divergentes au cours de leur transmission et de leur publication. De plus, l’usage pratique des sermons, répondant à des besoins divers (liturgie, lecture dévotionnelle etc.), conduisait aussi à tronquer, interpoler et réélaborer les sermons, de la simple adaptation à la compilation de centons. Dans ce cadre, l’étude de la prédication d’attribution incertaine, en particulier de sa transmission manuscrite, permet de s’interroger plus largement sur la pertinence de la notion d’auteur et de corpus, de souligner la fluidité de ces sermons, et d’explorer les pratiques de copie et de lecture dont ils ont fait l’objet.
En partant de l’état des travaux, l’objectif de cette journée d'étude est de poursuivre et d’approfondir l’étude des sermons d’attribution incertaine et situés actuellement dans l’Antiquité Tardive et au début du Moyen Âge, du IVe à la fin du VIIIe siècle, dans l’Occident latin (Afrique du Nord et Europe occidentale). Il s’agira de mieux mettre en lumière, sur la base des manuscrits, la circulation et l’utilisation concrète de ces sermons, de s’interroger sur les meilleurs outils à adopter pour leur classification, et enfin de discuter les critères de datation et de localisation utilisés (style, informations sur le contexte historique et intellectuel, texte biblique, canaux de transmission etc.).