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Books by Dario Bullitta

Atti del XXI Seminario Avanzato in Filologia Germanica, 2023

This volume collects papers presented during the XXI Advanced Seminar in Germanic Philology (Univ... more This volume collects papers presented during the XXI Advanced Seminar in Germanic Philology (University of Turin, 20-22 September 2021) and is dedicated to the genesis and fortune of the cult of Michael the Archangel in Lombard, English, German, Scandinavian, and medieval Latin traditions. Particular attention is paid to the production of hagiographic, eschatological, soteriological, and commemorative texts in which Michael is invoked with reference to one or more of its functions as psychopomp, purifier, miracle worker, commander of the angelic army, and opponent of Satan. Contributors: Immacolata Aulisa, Alessandro Zironi, Dagmar Gottaschall, Patrizia Lendinara, Claudia Di Sciacca, Raffaele Cioffi, Carla Cucina, Maria Elena Ruggerini, Margaret Cormack and Haukur Þorgeirsson, Matteo De Franco, Federica Di Giuseppe, Alice Fardin, Lidia Francesca Oliva, and Caterina Saracco.

While medieval Iceland has long been celebrated and studied for its rich tradition of vernacular ... more While medieval Iceland has long been celebrated and studied for its rich tradition of vernacular literature, in recent years attention has increasingly been paid to other areas of Old Norse-Icelandic scholarship, in particular the production of hagiographical and religious literature. At the same time, a similar renaissance has arisen in other fields, in particular Old Norse-Icelandic paleography, philology, and manuscript studies, thanks to the development of the so-called ‘new philology’, and its impact on our understanding of manuscripts. Central to these developments has been the scholarship of Kirsten Wolf, one of the foremost authorities in the fields of Old Norse-Icelandic hagiography, biblical literature, paleography, codicology, textual criticism, and lexicography, who is the honorand of this volume.

Icelanders venerated numerous saints, both indigenous and from overseas, in the Middle Ages. Howe... more Icelanders venerated numerous saints, both indigenous and from overseas, in the Middle Ages. However, although its literary elite was well acquainted with contemporary Continental currents in hagiographic compositions, theological discussions, and worship practices, much of the history of the learned European networks through which the Icelandic cult of the saints developed and partially survived the Lutheran Reformation remains obscure. The essays collected in this volume address this lacuna by exploring the legacies of the cult of some of the most prominent saints and holy men in medieval Iceland (the Virgin Mary along with SS Agnes of Rome, Benedict of Nursia, Catherine of Alexandria, Dominic of Caleruega, Michael the Archangel, Jón of Hólar, Þorlákr of Skálholt, Lárentíus of Hólar, and Guðmundr the Good), using evidence drawn from Old Norse-Icelandic and Latin hagiographic literature, homilies, prayers, diplomas, sacred art, place-names, and church dedications. By placing the medieval Icelandic
cult of the saints within its wider European context, the contributions trace new historical routes of cultural transmission and define the creative processes of the accommodation and adaptation of foreign hagiographic sources and models in medieval and early modern Iceland. They provide a clear picture of an Icelandic hagiographic literature and culture that celebrates the splendour of the saints; they also show how an engaging literary genre, which became immensely popular on the island throughout the Middle Ages and beyond, was created.

Full Book, Jan 2018

The present volume attempts to prove that the presence in Niðrstigningar saga of variant readings... more The present volume attempts to prove that the presence in Niðrstigningar saga of variant readings typical of the version known as the “Troyes redaction” of the Latin Evangelium Nicodemi, which originated in twelfth-century France, indicates that the Icelandic compiler employed this version of the text rather than the more widely available version of the apocryphon in western Europe. Moreover, a closer analysis of the textual interpolations drawn from foreign sources reveals the compiler’s acquaintance with biblical glosses and commentaries produced during the second half of the twelfth century by some of the greatest exegetes of the Paris school of theology, Peter Lombard (†1160) and Peter Comestor (†1178) in particular. Taking into account these identifications, the survey then turns to the evidence of French manuscripts dating to around 1200 and containing Parisian theological and exegetical texts that might have been brought to Iceland by students studying theology in northern France or Paris. Indeed, significantly, these texts conform to the matrix of additional biblical and theological material consulted by the compiler of Niðrstigningar saga to gloss, exemplify, and augment suitable passages of his copy of the Latin Evangelium Nicodemi. Finally, it is argued that the epilogue of Niðrstigningar saga was intentionally modelled on that of the Jarteinabók Þorláks byskups in forna (“The First Miracle Collection of Bishop Þorlákr”), written after 1199 and extant in the first section of AM 645 4to, the oldest surviving manuscript containing Niðrstigningar saga, and was already in circulation before the completion of the Jarteinabók Þorláks byskups ǫnnur (“The Second Miracle Collection of Bishop Þorlákr”), completed by the year 1210. In addition, the second section of the book includes a semidiplomatic edition of the two redactions of Niðrstigningar saga, which takes into account a new stemma codicum of the surviving manuscripts. Modern English translations of the edited texts are also provided.

Papers by Dario Bullitta

Journal of English and Germanic Philology 123 (2), 2024

In the present essay, I survey the fertile subsoil that favored the composition of Niðrstigningar... more In the present essay, I survey the fertile subsoil that favored the composition of Niðrstigningar saga, a text highly indebted to the intellectual and theological concerns of the Victorine schools of late twelfth-century Paris. I first sketch a history of the “mousetrap” simile for the cross, tracing its routes from Roman Africa to twelfth-century Paris, and then outline a partial reconstruction of the Victorine libraries of Norway and Iceland from the evidence provided by Latin manuscript fragments dating to the second half of the twelfth century, which include items and analogues that may have been consulted for the composition of the vernacular text. I then offer a fresh and more in-depth reading of the Victorine archival sources which testify to the factual or possible arrival of Norwegian and Icelandic clerics at the Abbeys of Saint-Victor and Sainte- Geneviève throughout the second half of the twelfth century. While most of these sources were mentioned in previous studies, I reassess them here through a more exhaustive analysis within their material and historical contexts. Among these, three Latin and French excerpts from previously unpublished or dispersed manuscript and archival material are made available here for the first time in diplomatic transcriptions and English translations (Appendices 1–3).

Feeding the Dragon: An Eschatological Motif in Medieval Europe, 2023

Prassi ecdotiche e restitutio dei testi germanici medievali. XX Seminario Avanzato in Filologia Germanica,, 2022

Gripla 33, 2022

This article offers a first critical edition of "Nokkrar eftirtakanligar smáhistoríur samantíndar... more This article offers a first critical edition of "Nokkrar eftirtakanligar smáhistoríur samantíndar til fróðleiks 1783", an Icelandic translation of sections of Andreas Hondorff’s "Promptuarium exemplorum" (“Repository of exempla”), which survives as Item 10 of Reykjavík, Landsbókasafn Íslands – Háskólabókasafn, JS 405 8vo (fols 25r–56r), a paper codex written between 1780 and 1791 by the farmer Ólafur Jónsson í Arney (c. 1722–1800). The "Promptuarium" was a highly popular compendium gathering wonders, agades, parables, and legends from antiquity, late antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance arranged according to the
Ten Commandments. It found an ever-expanding audience among Lutherans interested in wisdom drawn from Scriptures, history, and the natural world and circulated widely in Europe in both German and Latin. The present study demonstrates that in all likelihood Ólafur Jónsson translated sections of the rearranged Latin text of the "Promptuarium" published by Philip Lonicer (1532– 1599) in 1575 under the title "Theatrum historicum".

Þáttasyrpa – Studien zu Literatur, Kultur und Sprache in Nordeuropa. Festschrift für Stefanie Gropper, 2022

Sainthood, Scriptoria, and Secular Erudition in Medieval and Early Modern Scandinavia: Essays in Honor of Kirsten Wolf, 2022

In the following study, I investigate the provenance and circulation of Reykjavík, Stofnun Árna M... more In the following study, I investigate the provenance and circulation of Reykjavík, Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum, AM 624 4to (c. 1500), a voluminous composite miscellaneous manuscript in small quarto format transmitting mostly Old Norse-Icelandic translations of Latin theological, catechetical, homiletical, and computistic literature, along with numerous edifying short tales adapted from Middle English, and fewer original texts composed in the vernacular. Despite its late date of production, the codex bears an enormous historical and literary value within the corpus of Old Norse-Icelandic literature by virtue of its inclusion of some of the most rare and sophisticated devotional texts of the Old Norse-Icelandic corpus. The reason is threefold: AM 624 4to is often the sole surviving witness transmitting its texts (Items 1; 5; 7–8; 13; 15; 19; 27; and 32–33); in several cases it is the oldest extant witness within a given textual tradition (Items 9–11; 14; and 22); in three instances it shares significantly old texts with manuscript material that dates to around 1200 or earlier (Items 6; 10; and 31). In light of new manuscript evidence, I intend to complement previous studies on the codex by presenting a fresh assessment of its codicological composition and paleographic features, producing a more informative analysis of its provenance and circulation, and providing a first exhaustive catalogue of its items. Particular attention is payed to the idiosyncrasies of the first codicological unit (pp. 1–14), which has hitherto received virtually no scholarly attention.

In Saints and Their Legacies in Medieval Iceland, edited by Dario Bullitta and Kirsten Wolf. Studies in Old Norse Literature 9. Cambridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2021

In Saints and Their Legacies in Medieval Iceland, edited by Dario Bullitta and Kirsten Wolf. Studies in Old Norse Literature 9. Cambridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2021

In the present essay, I trace the paths of transmission of Framfǫr Maríu, an Icelandic translatio... more In the present essay, I trace the paths of transmission of Framfǫr Maríu, an Icelandic translation of the most recent Latin redaction of the apocryphal Transitus Mariae – a twelfth-century Italian text attributed to Joseph of Arimathea describing the Apostle Thomas’ late arrival at Mary’s burial. The study explores the provenance and circulation of the Norse translation in Copenhagen, Den Arnamagnæanske Samling, AM 232 fol. (c. 1300–1450) and argues that the presence in Framfǫr Maríu of variant readings typical of a newly identified ‘Tuscan redaction’ indicates that its lost manuscript source was a Latin codex circulating in Florence during the second quarter of the fifteenth century. It concludes that the lost Latin volume was likely acquired in Florence by the English Bishop of Hólar Jón Vilhjálmsson Craxton (d. 1440) during his visit to Pope Eugene IV (1383–1447) in the years 1433–1436, and that before his death Jón himself may have sent it to Hólar on an English ship, which must have had in his cargo also other manuscripts of English provenance. Finally, evidence is provided of the knowledge of the Pseudo-Joseph’s Transitus in the visual arts through a discussion of two previously unnoticed Assumption scenes in the alabaster altarpieces of Hítardalur (Mýrasýsla) and Möðruvellir (Eyjafjörður) that were also imported from England around 1450.

La letteratura d'istruzione intesa nella sua accezione più ampia costituisce uno dei campi d'inda... more La letteratura d'istruzione intesa nella sua accezione più ampia costituisce uno dei campi d'indagine più fecondi della cultura medievale d'area germanica, sia perché consente di seguire la nascita e lo sviluppo di diverse forme letterarie in società nelle quali a lungo la trasmissione della conoscenza era stata orale, sia perché aiuta a comprendere le dinamiche di adattamento di quelle popolazioni al mondo classico e cristiano col quale esse vennero in contatto, gradualmente, nei secoli compresi tra la Tarda Antichità e il Medioevo.

The Story of Joseph of Arimathea extracted from the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus represents the... more The Story of Joseph of Arimathea extracted from the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus represents the earliest and most extensive amplification of the Gospels’ narratives dealing with the finding of Christ’s empty tomb and with the events leading to and following his resurrection. The present study aims at providing the first survey and edition of the sole surviving extract concerning Joseph’s story in Icelandic translation, extant as item 5 in AM 655 XXVII 4to, a much-neglected Icelandic homilary dating from ca. 1300 preserved at the Arnamagnæan Collection in Copenhagen. The Icelandic Story of Joseph is compared to and tested against all the Latin and vernacular variant texts of the Gospel of Nicodemus that were known in Iceland by the beginning of the fourteenth century and related to the Marian and eschatological homilies transmitted along with it in AM 655 XXVII 4to. The survey is followed by a first semi-diplomatic edition of item 5 (Af fangelsi Ioseps), whose deficient or illegible readings have been emended on the basis of its underlying Latin source.

La collection Bibliothèque de l'École des hautes études, sciences religieuses, fondée en 1889 et ... more La collection Bibliothèque de l'École des hautes études, sciences religieuses, fondée en 1889 et riche de plus de cent soixante-dix volumes, reflète la diversité des enseignements et des recherches menés au sein de la Section des sciences religieuses de l'École pratique des hautes études (Paris, Sorbonne). Dans l'esprit de la section qui met en oeuvre une étude scientifique, laïque et pluraliste des faits religieux, on retrouve dans cette collection tant la diversité des religions et aires culturelles étudiées que la pluralité des disciplines pratiquées : philologie, archéologie, histoire, philosophie, anthropologie, sociologie, droit. Avec le haut niveau de spécialisation et d'érudition qui caractérise les études menées à l'EPHE, la collection Bibliothèque de l'École des Hautes Études, Sciences religieuses aborde aussi bien les religions anciennes disparues que les religions contemporaines, s'intéresse aussi bien à l'originalité historique, philosophique et théologique des trois grands monothéismes -judaïsme, christianisme, islam -qu'à la diversité religieuse en Inde, au Tibet, en Chine, au Japon, en Afrique et en Amérique, dans la Mésopotamie et l'Égypte anciennes, dans la Grèce et la Rome antiques. Cette collection n'oublie pas non plus l'étude des marges religieuses et des formes de dissidences, l'analyse des modalités mêmes de sortie de la religion. Les ouvrages sont signés par les meilleurs spécialistes français et étrangers dans le domaine des sciences religieuses (enseignants-chercheurs à l'EPHE, anciens élèves de l'École, chercheurs invités…).

È vietata la riproduzione, anche parziale, non autorizzata, con qualsiasi mezzo effettuata, compr... more È vietata la riproduzione, anche parziale, non autorizzata, con qualsiasi mezzo effettuata, compresa la fotocopia, anche a uso interno e didattico. L'illecito sarà penalmente perseguibile a norma dell 'art. 171 della Legge n. 633 del 22.04.1941 Introduzione Durante la tarda antichità e per tutto l'alto e il basso medioevo, gli apocrifi del Nuovo Testamento hanno costituito per clerici, teologi ed esegeti una preziosa ed esauriente fonte d'informazioni e aneddoti originali, perlopiù inediti, riguardanti la nascita, la vita e la morte di Cristo, da consultare e interrogare qualora il testo del canone risultasse lacunoso o ambiguo. 1 L'apocrifo del Nuovo Testamento che certamente godette di più ampia diffusione in tutta l'Europa medievale fu l'Evangelium Nicodemi, il vangelo attribuito a Nicodemo, il fariseo, membro del Sinedrio e occultamente discepolo di Cristo, che secondo Giovanni 19:39-42 assistette Giuseppe di Arimatea alla preparazione del corpo di Cristo per la sepoltura e alla sua tumulazione. 2 La natura composita dell'Evangelium Nicodemi sembrerebbe essere il risultato della fusione di due narrazioni distinte che in origine circolavano indipendentemente e che furono assemblate solo in un secondo momento a formare un testo unico, sebbene non propriamente coeso. 3 Il primo componimento, conosciuto con il nome di Acta Pilati, che costituisce i primi sedici capitoli del vangelo e tratta del processo di Cristo davanti a Pilato, fu composto in greco tra il II ed il IV secolo e venne tradotto già in epoca antica in arabo, aramaico, armeno, copto, georgiano, latino e siriaco. 4 Il Descensus Christi ad inferos, la seconda sezione del vangelo che occupa i dodici capitoli a seguire trattanti il tema catabasico della discesa di Cristo agli inferi, sembrerebbe essere stato composto ed aver circolato, quantomeno in una sua forma testuale primitiva, in un contesto linguistico greco, per poi essere tradotto e ampliato in latino e solo successivamente collocato in appendice alla versione latina degli Acta Pilati, col chiaro intento di dargli un seguito, in un arco di tempo che secondo gli ultimi studi oscillerebbe tra il V e l'VIII secolo. 5

Atti del XXI Seminario Avanzato in Filologia Germanica, 2023

This volume collects papers presented during the XXI Advanced Seminar in Germanic Philology (Univ... more This volume collects papers presented during the XXI Advanced Seminar in Germanic Philology (University of Turin, 20-22 September 2021) and is dedicated to the genesis and fortune of the cult of Michael the Archangel in Lombard, English, German, Scandinavian, and medieval Latin traditions. Particular attention is paid to the production of hagiographic, eschatological, soteriological, and commemorative texts in which Michael is invoked with reference to one or more of its functions as psychopomp, purifier, miracle worker, commander of the angelic army, and opponent of Satan. Contributors: Immacolata Aulisa, Alessandro Zironi, Dagmar Gottaschall, Patrizia Lendinara, Claudia Di Sciacca, Raffaele Cioffi, Carla Cucina, Maria Elena Ruggerini, Margaret Cormack and Haukur Þorgeirsson, Matteo De Franco, Federica Di Giuseppe, Alice Fardin, Lidia Francesca Oliva, and Caterina Saracco.

While medieval Iceland has long been celebrated and studied for its rich tradition of vernacular ... more While medieval Iceland has long been celebrated and studied for its rich tradition of vernacular literature, in recent years attention has increasingly been paid to other areas of Old Norse-Icelandic scholarship, in particular the production of hagiographical and religious literature. At the same time, a similar renaissance has arisen in other fields, in particular Old Norse-Icelandic paleography, philology, and manuscript studies, thanks to the development of the so-called ‘new philology’, and its impact on our understanding of manuscripts. Central to these developments has been the scholarship of Kirsten Wolf, one of the foremost authorities in the fields of Old Norse-Icelandic hagiography, biblical literature, paleography, codicology, textual criticism, and lexicography, who is the honorand of this volume.

Icelanders venerated numerous saints, both indigenous and from overseas, in the Middle Ages. Howe... more Icelanders venerated numerous saints, both indigenous and from overseas, in the Middle Ages. However, although its literary elite was well acquainted with contemporary Continental currents in hagiographic compositions, theological discussions, and worship practices, much of the history of the learned European networks through which the Icelandic cult of the saints developed and partially survived the Lutheran Reformation remains obscure. The essays collected in this volume address this lacuna by exploring the legacies of the cult of some of the most prominent saints and holy men in medieval Iceland (the Virgin Mary along with SS Agnes of Rome, Benedict of Nursia, Catherine of Alexandria, Dominic of Caleruega, Michael the Archangel, Jón of Hólar, Þorlákr of Skálholt, Lárentíus of Hólar, and Guðmundr the Good), using evidence drawn from Old Norse-Icelandic and Latin hagiographic literature, homilies, prayers, diplomas, sacred art, place-names, and church dedications. By placing the medieval Icelandic
cult of the saints within its wider European context, the contributions trace new historical routes of cultural transmission and define the creative processes of the accommodation and adaptation of foreign hagiographic sources and models in medieval and early modern Iceland. They provide a clear picture of an Icelandic hagiographic literature and culture that celebrates the splendour of the saints; they also show how an engaging literary genre, which became immensely popular on the island throughout the Middle Ages and beyond, was created.

Full Book, Jan 2018

The present volume attempts to prove that the presence in Niðrstigningar saga of variant readings... more The present volume attempts to prove that the presence in Niðrstigningar saga of variant readings typical of the version known as the “Troyes redaction” of the Latin Evangelium Nicodemi, which originated in twelfth-century France, indicates that the Icelandic compiler employed this version of the text rather than the more widely available version of the apocryphon in western Europe. Moreover, a closer analysis of the textual interpolations drawn from foreign sources reveals the compiler’s acquaintance with biblical glosses and commentaries produced during the second half of the twelfth century by some of the greatest exegetes of the Paris school of theology, Peter Lombard (†1160) and Peter Comestor (†1178) in particular. Taking into account these identifications, the survey then turns to the evidence of French manuscripts dating to around 1200 and containing Parisian theological and exegetical texts that might have been brought to Iceland by students studying theology in northern France or Paris. Indeed, significantly, these texts conform to the matrix of additional biblical and theological material consulted by the compiler of Niðrstigningar saga to gloss, exemplify, and augment suitable passages of his copy of the Latin Evangelium Nicodemi. Finally, it is argued that the epilogue of Niðrstigningar saga was intentionally modelled on that of the Jarteinabók Þorláks byskups in forna (“The First Miracle Collection of Bishop Þorlákr”), written after 1199 and extant in the first section of AM 645 4to, the oldest surviving manuscript containing Niðrstigningar saga, and was already in circulation before the completion of the Jarteinabók Þorláks byskups ǫnnur (“The Second Miracle Collection of Bishop Þorlákr”), completed by the year 1210. In addition, the second section of the book includes a semidiplomatic edition of the two redactions of Niðrstigningar saga, which takes into account a new stemma codicum of the surviving manuscripts. Modern English translations of the edited texts are also provided.

Journal of English and Germanic Philology 123 (2), 2024

In the present essay, I survey the fertile subsoil that favored the composition of Niðrstigningar... more In the present essay, I survey the fertile subsoil that favored the composition of Niðrstigningar saga, a text highly indebted to the intellectual and theological concerns of the Victorine schools of late twelfth-century Paris. I first sketch a history of the “mousetrap” simile for the cross, tracing its routes from Roman Africa to twelfth-century Paris, and then outline a partial reconstruction of the Victorine libraries of Norway and Iceland from the evidence provided by Latin manuscript fragments dating to the second half of the twelfth century, which include items and analogues that may have been consulted for the composition of the vernacular text. I then offer a fresh and more in-depth reading of the Victorine archival sources which testify to the factual or possible arrival of Norwegian and Icelandic clerics at the Abbeys of Saint-Victor and Sainte- Geneviève throughout the second half of the twelfth century. While most of these sources were mentioned in previous studies, I reassess them here through a more exhaustive analysis within their material and historical contexts. Among these, three Latin and French excerpts from previously unpublished or dispersed manuscript and archival material are made available here for the first time in diplomatic transcriptions and English translations (Appendices 1–3).

Feeding the Dragon: An Eschatological Motif in Medieval Europe, 2023

Prassi ecdotiche e restitutio dei testi germanici medievali. XX Seminario Avanzato in Filologia Germanica,, 2022

Gripla 33, 2022

This article offers a first critical edition of "Nokkrar eftirtakanligar smáhistoríur samantíndar... more This article offers a first critical edition of "Nokkrar eftirtakanligar smáhistoríur samantíndar til fróðleiks 1783", an Icelandic translation of sections of Andreas Hondorff’s "Promptuarium exemplorum" (“Repository of exempla”), which survives as Item 10 of Reykjavík, Landsbókasafn Íslands – Háskólabókasafn, JS 405 8vo (fols 25r–56r), a paper codex written between 1780 and 1791 by the farmer Ólafur Jónsson í Arney (c. 1722–1800). The "Promptuarium" was a highly popular compendium gathering wonders, agades, parables, and legends from antiquity, late antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance arranged according to the
Ten Commandments. It found an ever-expanding audience among Lutherans interested in wisdom drawn from Scriptures, history, and the natural world and circulated widely in Europe in both German and Latin. The present study demonstrates that in all likelihood Ólafur Jónsson translated sections of the rearranged Latin text of the "Promptuarium" published by Philip Lonicer (1532– 1599) in 1575 under the title "Theatrum historicum".

Þáttasyrpa – Studien zu Literatur, Kultur und Sprache in Nordeuropa. Festschrift für Stefanie Gropper, 2022

Sainthood, Scriptoria, and Secular Erudition in Medieval and Early Modern Scandinavia: Essays in Honor of Kirsten Wolf, 2022

In the following study, I investigate the provenance and circulation of Reykjavík, Stofnun Árna M... more In the following study, I investigate the provenance and circulation of Reykjavík, Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum, AM 624 4to (c. 1500), a voluminous composite miscellaneous manuscript in small quarto format transmitting mostly Old Norse-Icelandic translations of Latin theological, catechetical, homiletical, and computistic literature, along with numerous edifying short tales adapted from Middle English, and fewer original texts composed in the vernacular. Despite its late date of production, the codex bears an enormous historical and literary value within the corpus of Old Norse-Icelandic literature by virtue of its inclusion of some of the most rare and sophisticated devotional texts of the Old Norse-Icelandic corpus. The reason is threefold: AM 624 4to is often the sole surviving witness transmitting its texts (Items 1; 5; 7–8; 13; 15; 19; 27; and 32–33); in several cases it is the oldest extant witness within a given textual tradition (Items 9–11; 14; and 22); in three instances it shares significantly old texts with manuscript material that dates to around 1200 or earlier (Items 6; 10; and 31). In light of new manuscript evidence, I intend to complement previous studies on the codex by presenting a fresh assessment of its codicological composition and paleographic features, producing a more informative analysis of its provenance and circulation, and providing a first exhaustive catalogue of its items. Particular attention is payed to the idiosyncrasies of the first codicological unit (pp. 1–14), which has hitherto received virtually no scholarly attention.

In Saints and Their Legacies in Medieval Iceland, edited by Dario Bullitta and Kirsten Wolf. Studies in Old Norse Literature 9. Cambridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2021

In Saints and Their Legacies in Medieval Iceland, edited by Dario Bullitta and Kirsten Wolf. Studies in Old Norse Literature 9. Cambridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2021

In the present essay, I trace the paths of transmission of Framfǫr Maríu, an Icelandic translatio... more In the present essay, I trace the paths of transmission of Framfǫr Maríu, an Icelandic translation of the most recent Latin redaction of the apocryphal Transitus Mariae – a twelfth-century Italian text attributed to Joseph of Arimathea describing the Apostle Thomas’ late arrival at Mary’s burial. The study explores the provenance and circulation of the Norse translation in Copenhagen, Den Arnamagnæanske Samling, AM 232 fol. (c. 1300–1450) and argues that the presence in Framfǫr Maríu of variant readings typical of a newly identified ‘Tuscan redaction’ indicates that its lost manuscript source was a Latin codex circulating in Florence during the second quarter of the fifteenth century. It concludes that the lost Latin volume was likely acquired in Florence by the English Bishop of Hólar Jón Vilhjálmsson Craxton (d. 1440) during his visit to Pope Eugene IV (1383–1447) in the years 1433–1436, and that before his death Jón himself may have sent it to Hólar on an English ship, which must have had in his cargo also other manuscripts of English provenance. Finally, evidence is provided of the knowledge of the Pseudo-Joseph’s Transitus in the visual arts through a discussion of two previously unnoticed Assumption scenes in the alabaster altarpieces of Hítardalur (Mýrasýsla) and Möðruvellir (Eyjafjörður) that were also imported from England around 1450.

La letteratura d'istruzione intesa nella sua accezione più ampia costituisce uno dei campi d'inda... more La letteratura d'istruzione intesa nella sua accezione più ampia costituisce uno dei campi d'indagine più fecondi della cultura medievale d'area germanica, sia perché consente di seguire la nascita e lo sviluppo di diverse forme letterarie in società nelle quali a lungo la trasmissione della conoscenza era stata orale, sia perché aiuta a comprendere le dinamiche di adattamento di quelle popolazioni al mondo classico e cristiano col quale esse vennero in contatto, gradualmente, nei secoli compresi tra la Tarda Antichità e il Medioevo.

The Story of Joseph of Arimathea extracted from the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus represents the... more The Story of Joseph of Arimathea extracted from the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus represents the earliest and most extensive amplification of the Gospels’ narratives dealing with the finding of Christ’s empty tomb and with the events leading to and following his resurrection. The present study aims at providing the first survey and edition of the sole surviving extract concerning Joseph’s story in Icelandic translation, extant as item 5 in AM 655 XXVII 4to, a much-neglected Icelandic homilary dating from ca. 1300 preserved at the Arnamagnæan Collection in Copenhagen. The Icelandic Story of Joseph is compared to and tested against all the Latin and vernacular variant texts of the Gospel of Nicodemus that were known in Iceland by the beginning of the fourteenth century and related to the Marian and eschatological homilies transmitted along with it in AM 655 XXVII 4to. The survey is followed by a first semi-diplomatic edition of item 5 (Af fangelsi Ioseps), whose deficient or illegible readings have been emended on the basis of its underlying Latin source.

La collection Bibliothèque de l'École des hautes études, sciences religieuses, fondée en 1889 et ... more La collection Bibliothèque de l'École des hautes études, sciences religieuses, fondée en 1889 et riche de plus de cent soixante-dix volumes, reflète la diversité des enseignements et des recherches menés au sein de la Section des sciences religieuses de l'École pratique des hautes études (Paris, Sorbonne). Dans l'esprit de la section qui met en oeuvre une étude scientifique, laïque et pluraliste des faits religieux, on retrouve dans cette collection tant la diversité des religions et aires culturelles étudiées que la pluralité des disciplines pratiquées : philologie, archéologie, histoire, philosophie, anthropologie, sociologie, droit. Avec le haut niveau de spécialisation et d'érudition qui caractérise les études menées à l'EPHE, la collection Bibliothèque de l'École des Hautes Études, Sciences religieuses aborde aussi bien les religions anciennes disparues que les religions contemporaines, s'intéresse aussi bien à l'originalité historique, philosophique et théologique des trois grands monothéismes -judaïsme, christianisme, islam -qu'à la diversité religieuse en Inde, au Tibet, en Chine, au Japon, en Afrique et en Amérique, dans la Mésopotamie et l'Égypte anciennes, dans la Grèce et la Rome antiques. Cette collection n'oublie pas non plus l'étude des marges religieuses et des formes de dissidences, l'analyse des modalités mêmes de sortie de la religion. Les ouvrages sont signés par les meilleurs spécialistes français et étrangers dans le domaine des sciences religieuses (enseignants-chercheurs à l'EPHE, anciens élèves de l'École, chercheurs invités…).

È vietata la riproduzione, anche parziale, non autorizzata, con qualsiasi mezzo effettuata, compr... more È vietata la riproduzione, anche parziale, non autorizzata, con qualsiasi mezzo effettuata, compresa la fotocopia, anche a uso interno e didattico. L'illecito sarà penalmente perseguibile a norma dell 'art. 171 della Legge n. 633 del 22.04.1941 Introduzione Durante la tarda antichità e per tutto l'alto e il basso medioevo, gli apocrifi del Nuovo Testamento hanno costituito per clerici, teologi ed esegeti una preziosa ed esauriente fonte d'informazioni e aneddoti originali, perlopiù inediti, riguardanti la nascita, la vita e la morte di Cristo, da consultare e interrogare qualora il testo del canone risultasse lacunoso o ambiguo. 1 L'apocrifo del Nuovo Testamento che certamente godette di più ampia diffusione in tutta l'Europa medievale fu l'Evangelium Nicodemi, il vangelo attribuito a Nicodemo, il fariseo, membro del Sinedrio e occultamente discepolo di Cristo, che secondo Giovanni 19:39-42 assistette Giuseppe di Arimatea alla preparazione del corpo di Cristo per la sepoltura e alla sua tumulazione. 2 La natura composita dell'Evangelium Nicodemi sembrerebbe essere il risultato della fusione di due narrazioni distinte che in origine circolavano indipendentemente e che furono assemblate solo in un secondo momento a formare un testo unico, sebbene non propriamente coeso. 3 Il primo componimento, conosciuto con il nome di Acta Pilati, che costituisce i primi sedici capitoli del vangelo e tratta del processo di Cristo davanti a Pilato, fu composto in greco tra il II ed il IV secolo e venne tradotto già in epoca antica in arabo, aramaico, armeno, copto, georgiano, latino e siriaco. 4 Il Descensus Christi ad inferos, la seconda sezione del vangelo che occupa i dodici capitoli a seguire trattanti il tema catabasico della discesa di Cristo agli inferi, sembrerebbe essere stato composto ed aver circolato, quantomeno in una sua forma testuale primitiva, in un contesto linguistico greco, per poi essere tradotto e ampliato in latino e solo successivamente collocato in appendice alla versione latina degli Acta Pilati, col chiaro intento di dargli un seguito, in un arco di tempo che secondo gli ultimi studi oscillerebbe tra il V e l'VIII secolo. 5

Textual Genesis and Theology of Niðrstigningar saga

On the Textual Tradition and Stemmatics of Niðrstigningar saga

Crux Christi muscipula fuit diabolo: Un sermone agostiniano dietro la cattura di Satana nella Niðrstigningar saga

Bede’s Cowherd in Iceland: Hallbjǫrn Hali and his Acquisition of the Poetic Gift

Prestiti bassotedeschi nella Saga heilagrar Önnu: i termini senza modello testuale

The Apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus in Medieval Iceland: A Study of the Manuscript Tradition and Sources of Niðrstigningar saga

Paper presented at the international workshop “The Order of St. Victor in the Archidiocese of Nið... more Paper presented at the international workshop “The Order of St. Victor in the Archidiocese of Niðarós” organized by Hilde Bliksrud and Karl G. Johansson on 10–11 November 2022 at the Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies at the University of Oslo

Seminario filologico nell'ambito del Dottorato in Scienze Linguistiche. Università degli Studi di Bergamo e Pavia, 2022

Seminario per la Scuola di Alta Formazione Dottorale. Dottorato in Scienze Linguistiche. Università degli Studi di Bergamo e Pavia, 2022

Paper presented at the XX Seminario Avanzato in Filologia Germanica Prassi Ecdotiche e Restitutio dei Testi Germanici Medievali 16-18 Settembre 2019, 2019

Conosco un uomo in Cristo che, quattordici anni fa -se con il corpo o fuori del corpo non lo so, ... more Conosco un uomo in Cristo che, quattordici anni fa -se con il corpo o fuori del corpo non lo so, lo sa Diofu rapito fino al terzo cielo. E so che quest'uomo -se con il corpo o senza corpo non lo so, lo sa Diofu rapito in paradiso e udì parole indicibili che non è lecito ad alcuno pronunziare

Paper presented at the SASS 2019 conference, University of Wisconsin–Madison

Paper presented at the "Selskab for østnordisk filologis 3. internationella konference" Meeting h... more Paper presented at the "Selskab for østnordisk filologis 3. internationella konference" Meeting held at the University of Copenhagen on October 18 2017

Journal of English and Germanic Philology 123.3, 2024

The German mystic and saint Gertrude "the Great" of Helfta (ca. 1256-1301)-a Benedictine nun who ... more The German mystic and saint Gertrude "the Great" of Helfta (ca. 1256-1301)-a Benedictine nun who experienced her first vision at the age of twenty-five and soon after began to produce spiritual treatises for the benefit of her sisters-was, and is still today, a central figure for the devotion of the Sacred Heart. At the age of five Gertrude entered the convent of Helfta (near Eisleben, Saxony), where she was entrusted to the care of Mechthild of Hackeborn (d. 1299), another ardent devotee and promoter of Christ's heart, who would exert profound influence on Gertrude's mysticism. Concurrently, another fervid Benedictine mystic, Mechthild of Magdeburg (d. ca. 1280/90), was working in the same scriptorium on the completion of Das fließende Licht der Gottheit (The Flowing Light of Divinity), the first masterpiece of German mystical literature composed in the vernacular. (Recently Middle Low German [Mechthild's native language] fragments of Das fließende Licht were discovered at the Moscow Lomonosov University Library [Collection Gustav Schmidt, Fonds 40/1, nr. 47]. See especially Nigel F. Palmer, "Ein Zeugnis deutscher Kunstprosa aus dem späten 13. Jahrhundert: Zu den sonst nicht nachgewiesenen Textabschnitten der Moskauer Mechthild-Überlieferung" in Deutsch-russische Arbeitsgespräche zu mittelalterlichen Handschriften und Drucken in russischen Bibliotheken [2014], pp. 97-138.) In the present volume, Racha Kirakosian surveys the Latin and vernacular production and reception of Gertrud's Legatus divinae pietatis (Herald of Divine Love)-a sort of biography in five books, of which only book II is by the saint, while the others are compilations of her sisters based on her notes-as well as its late fourteenth-century Middle High German abbreviation and adaptation known as Ein botte der götlichen miltekeit (A Messenger of Divine Generosity) and the so-called Trutta-legend. Chapter 1, "The Helfta Scriptorium," surveys the collaborative processes of writing shared at the convent of Helfta during the thirteenth and fourteenth century. It is argued that rather being the intellectual product of the three prominent mystics-Mechthild of Magdeburg, Mechthild of Hackeborn, and Gertrude of Helfta-the textual production at the Helfta scriptorium results from a collaborative process of writing among the sisters. A recently discovered alternative version of the Legatus-known as Leipziger Sonderausgabe and preserved in Leipzig, Universitätsbibliothek, 827, a codex from the Abbey of Pegau that dates from the days of Gertrude-provides further evidence of a dynamic manuscript culture, where parallel versions of a "single text" were circulating. In chapter 2, "Redaction within a Dynamic Textuality," the author suggests that the Legatus was redacted into the botte by Carthusians and that the Trutta-legend emerged first in the Dominican nunnery of Katharinenkirche in Nuremberg (Bavaria). This chapter highlights the multifaceted nature of the writing process, involving drafting, adaptation, and copying, moving away from far-too-strict binary distinction between author and scribe, original and translation. Chapter 3, "Manuscript Transmission History," deals with the vernacular reception of the Legatus and

Medieval Sermon Studies, 2021

The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, 2018

Journal of English and Germanic Philology, 2017

Handout of the paper presented at "Feeding the Dragon: An Eschatological Motif in Early Medieval Europe" Workhop, University of Udine, 2020

The first extant Icelandic translation of the Evangelium Nicodemi circulated with the title Niðrs... more The first extant Icelandic translation of the Evangelium Nicodemi circulated with the title Niðrstigningar saga (“The Story of the Descent”) since it only includes the second section of the original Latin text known as the Descensus Christi ad inferos. The vernacular rendition (produced in all probability at the southern diocese of Skálholt around 1200) is not a translation sensu stricto but rather an adaptation and reformulation of the Latin apocryphon, involving profound elaboration of the original narrative fabric.
The present paper aims at surveying two of the four interpolations of Niðrstigningar saga that concern two highly divergent descriptions of Satan. In the first instance, the regular course of the apocryphon is interrupted to describe Satan as the terrifying seven-headed dragon of Revelation 12:3, who threatens to destroy the world. In the second instance, the Latin text is amplified with a description of Satan’s rushed trip to Jerusalem to swallow the dying Christ. Yet, at the moment of gulping down his pray, the body of Christ served as a human bait and the Cross functioned as a divine hook: thus Christ is said to have “deceived the Deceiver” through the concealment of his divinity within His human form, while Satan is figuratively described as entrapped on the Cross “like a fish on a fishhook, a mouse in a mousetrap or a fox in a snare”. The paper argues that these mighty metaphors are likely derived from Augustine’s Sermo 265D (De Quadragesima Ascensione Domini), a sermon originally delivered against the Manicheans and their heresies, which contemplated Christ as a pure emanation of the deity and neglected his human substance. The Icelandic compiler might have been acquainted with its text in the form of a marginal gloss to Peter Lombard’s Sententiae in IV libris distinctae (ca. 1157) that expanded upon one of the New Testament loci that alludes to Christ’s victory over the Devil through the Cross. Finally, it is advanced that the typological connection between the historical Harrowing of Hell and Christ’s ultimate dealing with Satan of the first interpolation renders the Icelandic translation more topical and confers on it a more liturgical character, while the second interpolation places great emphasis on Satan’s inability to recognize Christ’s inseparable natures, the human and the divine, and might well reflect antinihilistic positions that spread rapidly throughout Europe after the Third Lateran Council (1179).

Power Point of the paper presented at "Feeding the Dragon: An Eschatological Motif in Early Medieval Europe" Workhop, University of Udine, 2020, 2020

Handout of the paper presented at the SASS 2019 conference, University of Wisconsin–Madison