Thursday, June 14, 2018

Theodulf Bibles

Theodulf (760–821 CE; see Ann Freeman's article) became bishop of Orléans (75 miles south of Paris) in 797/8. He wrote in many genres: poems, letters, theological and liturgical treatises. Charlemagne died in 814, and his son, Louis the Pious, accused Theodulf of political intrigue, which led to Theodulf's resigning his see in 817. He died in 821 and was buried in Angers (125 miles west of Orléans), where he had spent most of his last years. Apparently, his principal work was the unattributed Libri Carolini, a polemical response to the Second Council of Nicaea (787). This work, written for Charlemagne, concentrated on criticizing the supposed position taken at Nicaea in regard to icons. According to Wikipedia:
The work appears to have been very largely a polemic based on a misunderstanding of the actual position taken by the Byzantine church, which was quietly archived when this was realized, probably in Rome.
(For more on the Libri Carolini, see this other article by Ann Freeman.)

Theodulf's revision was not the first during the reign of Charlemagne (see this article).

There were also:
--Maurdramnus, abbot of Corbie (772–781). Five of twelve volumes survive at Amiens (90 miles north of Paris; BM Amiens, 67911 and 12). This is the first known example of the caroline minuscule.
--Angilram, bishop of Metz (d. 791), who produced a single-volume Bible, a single manuscript preserved at Metz (200 miles east of Paris; Bibliothèque Municipale 7), but destroyed in 1944.
--Alcuin of York (c. 735–804), abbot at Tours (796–804), who produced the edition that became the most popular. Tours is 75 miles southwest of Orléans. There survive 18 complete and 28 incomplete pandects from the scriptorium at Tours, copied in the first half of the ninth century. The earliest of these is: St Gall, Stiftsbibliothek, 75 (images). Another important one is the Bible of Moutier-Grandval, London, Add. 10546 (see here). Alcuin's revision concentrated on issues of Latin grammar and style.



Theodulf wanted to attain the original translation from Jerome, the hebraica veritas. Theodulf himself knew neither Hebrew nor Greek, but he had a good knowledge of the Latin manuscript tradition, and chose variants among the manuscripts. Variant readings he sometimes recorded in the margin. He continued this work of revision for the rest of his life. This is why the six preserved Theodulf Bibles each contains a different state of the revision. This fact also helps to establish relative dates for the six Bibles. 

"Theodulf's text was continuously revised during his lifetime, and was conceived as an accessible reference work, and so he chose a very small, three column 61-line format, with quires of five leaves" (Ganz, p. 53). 

Each of Theodulf's six Bibles (except for the Le Puy Bible) is available in online digital images; references given below. 

In chronological order: 
  1. Stuttgart, Württemburgische Landesbibliothek HB II, 16, deriving from the Konstanz Cathedral. This Bible lacks Gen 1:1–Lev 23:32; Josh 2:11–7:23; Baruch 6; Lamentations; Job; Psa 1:1–144:21; 2 Par 32:26–35:20; Sir 31:33–37:17; 1 Mac 1:27–3:56; 2 Mac 15:30–end. In the NT, all that remain are Paul's letters (including Hebrews), the letter of James, and 1 Pet 1:1–4:3. Digital images here.
  2. Saint-Hubert Bible (abbey of Saint-Hubert), now in London, British Library Add. 24 142. Lacks: Gen 1:1–49:6; most of the Minor Prophets (Hos 6:8–Mal); 1 Pet 4:3–end of the NT (which would include Acts and Rev). Digital images here
  3. Le Puy Bible, Trésor de la Cathedral (at the Le Puy Cathedral).
  4. Orléans Bible (Paris, BnF, lat. 9380) = Codex Mesmianus, because it was at one point acquired by the family of Mesmes. Digital images here. This Bible has variants from Alcuin.  
  5. Saint-Germain Bible (Abbey of Saint-Germain-de-Prés), now Paris, BnF, lat. 11 937. This manuscript is preserved only from Gen 18:20–Psa 92:5. The evidence for marginal readings attributed to the Hebrew Bible in this manuscript has made it the object of study by Graves (231–41) and Candiard and Chevalier Royet. "It seems that the purpose of these Hebrew scholia was to indicate to the Latin reader what the Hebrew contained according to the strictest and most literal understanding. They were presumably meant as a study tool for the reader interested in Hebrew" (Graves 231–32). Graves' comprehensive study of the Hebrew marginal notes in 1 Samuel is based on the apparatus in the Roman Vulgate (232n48). Digital images here. Jerome's prologue to Samuel begins on what is labeled on the manuscript as fol. 62, but the digital image is given the number 72. The text of Samuel begins at image 73, the right inside column. According to Candiard and Chevalier-Royet (21 with n30), in these last two manuscripts Theodulf is no longer chiefly concerned with comparing Latin manuscripts: the marginal glosses (numbering around 2000 in the Saint-Germain manuscript) are almost always preceded by an 'h', signaling a reading based on the Hebrew text, whereas there are only a few notes preceded by 'al' (= alii), signaling a reading derived from another Latin witness. 
  6. Copenhagen, Kongelige Bibliotek NKS1, previously at the Carcassonne Cathedral. This Bible exists in fragments: Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Dan 1:1–6:5. This Bible also presents abundant marginal notes offering comparisons with the Hebrew Bible. Digital images here
(See also another fragment here.)

The first four Bibles were produced around 800, the fifth and sixth one later on. Only the Le Puy and Orléans Bibles are complete. At least three other Theodulf Bibles are known to have once existed. 

Theodulf began his work on the biblical text only after he became bishop, and his work was interrupted by his deposition. 

The Theodulf Bibles were much more scholarly than Alcuin's with their marginal notes and concern for the Hebrew text, but they were also harder to use and presented no unified text. Alcuin's more straightforward and more magnificent volumes predominated, aided by the rapid production rate at Tours (about 2 Bibles per year for the first half of the ninth century). 

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The websites elmss.nuigalway.ie and trismegistos.org both claim that a photographic facsimile of the entire Metz codex that was destroyed in 1944 is preserved in the "Abbey of San Girolamo" in Rome. I'm assuming that they are referring to San Girolamo dei Croati, but in any event would you happen to know if this information is accurate?

Ed Gallagher said...

Hi, thanks for pointing this out. Yes, apparently there is a reproduction, of at least half the manuscript. According to Fischer, Bibelhandschriften (p. 92, Google Books link below), "Only the second part of this Bibel ... was preserved until it perished in 1944; a complete facsimile is preserved in S. Girolamo, Rome." Editions of the VL that make use of the Metz Bible (such as Thiele's edition of Sirach) also provide such information.

The abbey is not the one you mentioned. There was a benedictine monastery of San Girolamo that was in charge of editing the major critical edition of the Vulgate, sometimes called the Benedictine Edition or the Roman Vulgate. According to Wikipedia, this monastery closed in the early 1980s and its location was then taken up by the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontifical_Abbey_of_St_Jerome-in-the-City). It doesn't exactly say what happened to the library. If I'm able to find out, I'll post it here.

For those interested, the LDAB number of the Metz Bible is 8209.

Fischer's book: https://books.google.com/books/about/Lateinische_Bibelhandschriften_im_fr%C3%BChe.html?id=5KPYAAAAMAAJ

David Ganz said...

There is full digitisation of the photographs of the Metz volume on the IRHT CNRS website among the manuscripts of Metz
http://bvmm.irht.cnrs.fr/resultRecherche/resultRecherche.php?rechercheRapide=Metz+Bibliotheque+Municipale&newSearch=1

It is BM manuscript 7. One or two pages seem to have been omitted and 2 are currently photographed upside down.

Anonymous said...

Greetings:

BVMM lists the date of the METZ Bible on its website as 11th Century.
However, Angilram died in 791. So, is this the same Bible?