Abbo of Fleury

ABBO OF FLEURY

According to the life written by Aimoin (PL 139.387–414; BHL 3), Abbo, born in the Orléanais ca. 945, was an oblate at Fleury (Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire) and later studied in Rheims and Paris. He may have been present at the synod of Winchester (ca. 973; see Knowles 1963 p 46 note 3 and the REGULARIS CONCORDIA, ed. Symons and Spath 1984 p 72). He became master of the monastic school at Fleury, but, apparently disappointed by the selection of another to be abbot (Mostert 1986), he accepted an invitation to teach at the recently established abbey of Ramsey; he remained in England from late 985 to the autumn of 987. He returned to Fleury to become abbot in 988, proving to be an active supporter of the Cluniac reform and opposed to the power of the bishops. He was killed at La Réole (Gascony) in 1004. An epitaph survives (MGH PLAC III.344; ICL 5795), and he was venerated as a martyr during the Middle Ages. For further discussion of his life, see Cousin (1954), Mostert (1987 pp 40–64), Engelen (1993 pp 3–4), Schupp (1997 pp xi–xviii), BEASE p 3, and DMA 1.12–13. On the importance of Fleury at this time, see, for example, Pellegrin (1984–85). On his influence on DUNSTAN, ÆLFRIC, and BYRHTFERTH, this last his pupil at Ramsey, see John (1983 pp 300–06) and Baker and Lapidge (EETS SS 15 pp xx–xxiii and xliii–xlv). For further evidence of the cultural traffic between Fleury and English abbeys, see Vezin (1977), Gransden (1995 p 23 note 25), and BEASE pp 187–88.

Setting out Abbo’s works is complicated by several related problems. Some, most notably the Computus, lack critical editions while others remain unedited. Moreover, since some are quite brief yet on related topics, it can be difficult to determine which should stand alone. These problems are further complicated by the differing titles that appear in the manuscripts and thus in the scholarship: the more common, but not all, of these variant titles are listed with cross-references.

The individual entries below begin with two works closely associated with Abbo’s time in England, the Passio Eadmundi and the Quaestiones grammaticales, and then turn to the Computus that he would have brought with him to Ramsey. Following these entries are sections, with individual entries arranged alphabetically, on his other Mathematical and Astronomical Tractates and his Poems. The only letter by him known in Anglo-Saxon England is the one to Dunstan at the beginning of the Passio Eadmundi. While many questions about the chronology of Abbo’s works remain (see Evans and Peden 1985 pp 109–10), it appears that during the period of his abbacy his interests shifted from scientific to political matters; these later works, set out by Sharpe (HLW 1–4), are not currently known to have circulated in Anglo-Saxon England. The request of abbot WULFRIC of St Augustine’s (ed. RS 63.409; see Van de Vyver 1935 p 165 note 1) for a verse counterpart to a prose work on Dunstan (B’s Vita Dunstani: see ACTA SANCTORUM, Dunstanus) may serve as a reminder not only of continued interest in the opus geminatum in England, but also of the continued contact between Abbo and the Anglo-Saxons, which could have led to knowledge of his later works.

Finally, since much uncertainty about Abbo’s actual oeuvre—particularly his poems and shorter tracts—remains, it seems premature to create a separate section for Pseudo Abbo. There are, therefore, entries here on two poems, In patris natique sui and Terminat Hyginus, that Lapidge and Baker (1997 p 10) consider to be by a follower. An entry on De quinque zonae caeli is also included with other astronomical tracts because Bober (1956–57 pp 67and 93) considers it “Abbonian.” For other works associated with Abbo but not individually catalogued by Sharpe (HLW 1–4), see the introductory remarks to the two sections below.

Passio Eadmundi [ABBO.FLOR.Pass.Eadmund.]: BHL 2392; BLS 4.394–96; BSS 4.917–20; DHGE 14.1439–41; Farmer (1987) pp 131–32.

ed.: Winterbottom 1972 pp 67–87.

MSS1. Copenhagen, Kongelige Bibliotek G.K.S. 1588 (4o): HG 813.

2. London, BL Cotton Tiberius B.ii: HG 371.

3. London, Lambeth Palace 362: HG 514.

4. Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale lat. 5362: HG 885.3.

ListsBury St Edmunds: ML 7.7.

3 ABBO OF FLEURY

A-S VersÆLS Edmund (B1.3.31).

Quots/Citssee below.

RefsÆLS Edmund 7–8.

The major work arising from Abbo’s English period and perhaps written there (Gransden 1995 pp 47–56), the Passio Eadmundi was composed at the request of the Ramsey monks. It begins with a letter to DUNSTAN (ed. Winterbottom 1972 pp 67–68; previously edited in RS 63.378–80). Dunstan may also have influenced its style, which differs from Abbo’s other works showing several hermeneutic features. In the Passio, Abbo transformed the king of the East Angles, Edmund, who had been killed by the Danes in 869–70, into a martyr, which is at variance with the annal for 870 in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (ChronA, B17.1, and ChronE, B17.9, ed. Plummer 1892–99; see CHRONICLES) and ASSER’s life of King Alfred (De rebus gestis Ælfredi, ed. W.Stevenson 1904 p 26; see also Keynes and Lapidge 1983 p 78). The cult spread throughout England, Ireland, Scandinavia, and elsewhere (see C.Loomis 1932 and 1933; Whitelock 1970; J.Grant 1978; Ridyard 1988; RS 83.42–43; and RS 96).

Gransden (1995 pp 63–64) considers the Lambeth manuscript to be the oldest, from before the mid-eleventh century, and thus possibly referred to in the booklist from Bury St Edmunds. She dates the Copenhagen manuscript to the mid-eleventh century or later and the Cotton manuscript to ca. 1100. She does not associate the Paris manuscript with England (p70 note 303).

Mentioning his source in his opening paragraph, ÆLFRIC of Eynsham (not Ælfric, abbot of Malmesbury, as William of Malmesbury claimed, RS 52.406–07) translated the Passio ca. 998 in his Lives of Saints (ÆLS; EETS OS 94 and 114, and Needham 1966 pp 43–59), excluding many hagiographic motifs (Woolf 1966b pp 63–64) but otherwise remaining close to the original (Clark 1968; see further Lapidge and Winterbottom 1991 p cl and Benskin 1994). According to Gerould (1924–25), Abbo’s Passio influenced Ælfric’s rhythmic prose.

The text of Ælfric’s homily in London, BL Cotton Julius E.vii (HG 339; NRK 162), which was possibly written at Bury, shows several alterations (Needham 1958 p 160), for example in the sentence where Ælfric alludes to the unworthiness of the secular canons who were the guardians of Edmund’s shrine until 1020 (lines 255–56, and Winterbottom 1972 p87 lines 16 and 20–21). In BL Cotton Otho B.x (HG 355; NRK 177A), the antiquarian John Joscelyn has added Abbo’s preface to the Latin Passio in the margin of the Old English text, declaring that he drew it “e codice Bibliothecae Wigorniensis” (NRK p 227).

There is a couplet in Edmund’s honor in the Metrical Calendar of Ramsey 116–17 (ed. Lapidge 1984 p 366), and the martyrdom is celebrated in another Ramsey production, the early sections of the Historia Regum (ed. RS 75/2.76–77) that are now regarded as the work of BYRHTFERTH (Lapidge 1982a and Hart 1982).

The influence of the Passio is evident in the hymns in honor of Edmund: Edmundus martyr inclitus (AH 19.196), Laurea regni (AH 19.197), and Laus et corona (AH 19.198). All three occur in BL Cotton Vespasian D.xii (HG 391; Gneuss 1968 p 98) and the last two in London, Lambeth Palace 362 (HG 514; Gneuss 1968 p 114). A similar influence is evident in the hymn O mundi pater unice of the Psalter and Hymnal from Bury (Gneuss 1968 p 114).

For further discussion of the development of the legend and the manuscripts of the Passio, see Gransden (1982, 1985, and 1995); on the historical context of the cult and the Passio, see Thacker (1996a pp 249–51) and Folz (1978 and 1984 pp 49–52); and on the Passio in the context of Abbo’s political theories, see Mostert (1987 pp 40–45) and Head (1990 pp 240–51). There is an English translation of the Passio in Hervey’s edition (1907 pp 7–61).

Quaestiones grammaticales [ABBO.FLOR.Quaest.gramm.].

ed.: Guerreau-Jalabert 1982 pp 209–75.

MSS – Refsnone.

In this work, perhaps written in England (Guerreau-Jalabert 1982 p200 and BEASE p 3), Abbo answers questions on orthography, morphology, and syntax that had been raised by his pupils at Ramsey. It survives in two manuscripts (Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana Reg. lat. 596 and London, BL Additional 10972) from Fleury, but both were copied after Abbo’s death (Guerreau-Jalabert 1982 pp 200–01). See Guerreau-Jalabert (1982 p 202) for a fourteenth-century manuscript in Erfurt that contains extracts.

Opposite the Latin text, Guerreau-Jalabert (1982) provides a French translation.

Computus [ABBO.FLOR.Comp.]: see also Ardua connexae libat sacraria formae (Poems).

ed.: PL 90.727–820: see below.

MSS – Refsnone.

Abbo’s Computus, composed in 978 (Lapidge and Baker 1997 p 1; and see Aimoin, PL 139.390), has yet to be adequately edited in part because of the nature of the genre: as a compilation of texts and tables related to the calendar (Abbo’s calendar, itself distinctive, is described by Baker and Lapidge EETS SS 15 p xliii), a computus is a miscellany drawing on earlier works and itself susceptible to interpolation and selective copying. Lapidge and Baker (1997 p 1) provide a list of manuscripts: the two best, Berlin, Staatsbibliothek 138 (formerly Phillipps 1833) and Bern, Burgerbibliothek 250, are both from Fleury; the English manuscripts are all later than the Anglo-Saxon period. Baker and Lapidge (EETS SS 15 pp xliii–xliv) describe its contents with reference to PL 90 (see also Jones 1939 pp 59–79, 80, 81, and 90). In spite of the difficulty in establishing this text, Abbo’s contribution to the genre should be recognized. According to Baker and Lapidge (EETS SS 15 p xlv), he “pruned” earlier computi, which were “unwieldy, redundant and inconsistent,” “supplied explanations for both the tables he retained and those he composed, and imposed order on the resulting more tractable collection of materials.”

Abbo brought his Computus and those of BEDE and HELPERIC OF AUXERRE (McGurk 1974) and perhaps HRABANUS MAURUS (CCCM 44.173 note 35) with him to Ramsey. BYRHTFERTH drew on these for his own Computus (described in EETS SS 15 pp 373–427) and his Enchiridion (ByrM 1; B20.20.1; ed. EETS SS 15), a commentary in Latin and English on his Computus. He acknowledged his debt to Abbo in his Epilogus (EETS SS 15 pp 375–79), lines 83–86, for his knowledge of the subject (see also Forsey 1928).

Mathematical and Astronomical Tractates

These works, in general, appear to have developed out of Abbo’s teaching at Fleury and Ramsey, and are often associated with his Computus. Two letters on the Dionysian cycle, written in 1003 and 1004 (Van de Vyver 1935 pp 154–58), may serve as a reminder that the dates of individual treatises could vary.

As noted in the general introduction above, De quinque zonae caeli is included here because Bober (1956–57 pp 67 and 93) considers it “Abbonian.” Two other works identified by him, one as “Abbonian” (De cursu solis et lunae) and the other as by Abbo (De ratione bissexti et embolismi), are not included because there is currently no evidence that they were known in Anglo-Saxon England. Similarly there is no entry on a tract beginning “Karissime frater hoc calculum quod in hoc tuo libro karaxatum habeo” (Saxl and Meier 1953 1.446) identified in the manuscript, Durham, Cathedral Library Hunter 100 (NRK 110), as by Abbo.

Abacus [ABBO.FLOR.Abac.]: Thorndike and Kibre (1963) col 674.

ed.: Bubnov 1899 pp 203–04.

MSSOxford, St John’s College 17: HG 683.

Lists – A-S Versnone.

Quots/Citssee below.

Refssee below.

On folio 35r of the Oxford manuscript are three multiplication tables, the first headed “In hac figura descriptus est numerus infinitus” and the second “Ratio Abbonis supra praefatum numerum.” Evans (1979 p 89) claims that they “condense into tabular form” Abbo’s Commentarius in calculum Victorii. Baker and Lapidge (EETS SS 15 pp 423–24) describe the tables and print the third. The second, fourteen sentences on finger-reckoning, is the source for BYRHTFERTH’s Enchiridion (ByrM 1; B20.20.1; ed. EETS SS 15) IV.i.408–36. Byrhtferth leads into this discussion by recalling his teacher and remarking on the miracles that have followed his death (404–07). The third table, for ferial and lunar calculations, is the source for Enchiridion I.ii.73–77.

Commentarius in calculum Victorii [ABBO.FLOR.Comm.calc.Vict.]: Thorndike and Kibre (1963) col 183.

ed.: see below.

MSS – Refsnone.

The preface to this work is printed from one manuscript by Evans and Peden (1985 pp 126–27) and appears in PL 139.569–72. Bubnov (1899 pp 199–203) prints extracts from it. Near the end of his Quaestiones grammaticales, Abbo refers to this work as “a little book on number, measure, and weight” (Guerreau-Jalabert 1982 p 275), which he identifies as “the three-fold means by which God has ordered creation” (Evans and Peden 1985 p 113, and see further their discussion of its contents and analysis of Abbo’s achievement).

Van de Vyver (1935 p 129) speculates that a work on fractions, De unciarum minutiis (the relationship of this work to Abbo’s Regulae de minutiis, Thorndike and Kibre 1963 col 1597, has not been determined), in a manuscript that also contains Abbo’s Quaestiones grammaticales (London, BL Additional 10972) was written for students perplexed by Abbo’s Commentary on Victorius’s Calculus. Evans (1979 p 88) remarks that this “would imply that the abacus commentary was already being studied in England.”