Medieval Source Repertories in the Twenty-First Century J.R

Review Essay Claves and Clavigeri: Medieval Source Repertories in the Twenty-First Century J.R. Webb Pontifical Institute of Mediæval Studies Clavis scriptorum Latinorum medii aevi: Auctores Galliae 735–987, ed. Marie- Hélène Jullien (and Françoise Perelman for vols. 1–2), Corpus Christianorum continuatio mediævalis (Turnhout: Brepols, 1994–) Clavis scriptorum Latinorum medii aevi: Auctores Italiae (700–1000), ed. Benedetta Valtorta, Edizione nazionale dei testi mediolatini 17 – Serie I, 10 (Florence: SISMEL, Edizione del Galuzzo, 2006) Compendium auctorum Latinorum medii aevi (500–1500), ed. Michael Lapidge et al. (Florence: SISMEL, Edizione del Galuzzo, 2000–) Die Geschichtsquellen des deutschen Mittelalters: www.repfont.badw.de (2006–) The Narrative Sources from the Medieval Low Countries, ed. Jeroen Deploige: www.narrative-sources.be (2002–) If each generation must write its own history, the same cannot be said of the heuristic tools that historians use to identify texts, authors, and relevant bibliography. Herein lie the positivistic vestiges of the scholarly endeavor, where much of the toil of earlier efforts to gather information on historical sources is not lost in subsequent undertakings. Source repertories are especially integral to the field of medieval studies, whose practitioners wade through centuries of scholarship and editions as they interpret that distant past. One might even observe that source repertories are a thing specific to ancient and medieval scholarship, since the quantity of sources following the advent of printing renders the textual corpus – barely manageable before 1500 – finally unmanageable. Because the bibliographer’s work is never finished, these repertories are in continual need of revision and updating. Authorial attribution is often a shaky business, newly discovered manuscripts of old works are continually being added, critical editions are increasing, and of course, secondary scholarship marches on at a greater pace than ever before.1 And so, the early years of 1 As Jacques Fontaine wrote in the preface to the French translation of the Tusculum-Lexikon, “L’arbre du savoir ne cesse de pousser; il pousse aussi de plus en plus vite,” then going on to speak of “la contagion de la productivité dans notre civilisation technicienne”! Dictionnaire des auteurs grecs et latins de l’antiquité et du moyen âge, trans. J.D. Berger and J. Billen (Turnhout, 1991), at p. v. Original German edn.: Wolfgang Buchwald, Armin Hohlweg, and Otto Prinz, Tusculum-Lexikon griechischer und lateinischer Autoren des Altertums und des Mittelalters, 3rd edn. (Munich, 1982). The entries on medieval Latin authors are the work of Otto Prinz. Fontaine’s sentiment is not a new one: see Eccles. 12:12. 10.1484/J.JML.1.102533 The Journal of Medieval Latin 21 (2011): 253–267 © FHG 253 254 Webb this century have witnessed a new crop of medieval source repertories, which are both more complete and in most cases more concentrated in space and time than those of the previous century. Their longevity as standard references in the years to come will depend on their adaptability to the new media through which knowledge and information are now conveyed. The occasion for the following review essay presented itself with the appearance in 2010 of the most recent volume of the Clavis scriptorum Latinorum medii aevi: Auctores Galliae 735–987 in the Corpus Christianorum series published by Brepols. Rather than limit this review to volume 3 of this collaborative reference work, or even to all hitherto published volumes of the series, it may be more useful at this time to take a broader view and give a general consideration of several projects currently underway which are intended to serve as reference guides to medieval writers and sources. I include in this review not only repertories that have appeared in print, but also projects (e.g. from the Low Countries and Germany) that have chosen a digital format. Though there are positives and negatives in either format, the future clearly lies with the online repertories. Indeed, there has rarely if ever been an endeavor in medieval studies more suited to online publication than these reference tools for written sources. The effort to catalogue medieval authors and their works has a long history, stretching at least as far back as the sixteenth century.2 A new phase of clarity and comprehensiveness came in the mid-nineteenth century with the publication of August Potthast’s Bibliotheca historica medii aevi (1862, revised in 1896).3 From a large number of annales to an even larger number of vitae, it was an impressive undertaking.4 The soundness of Potthast’s approach in attempting to deal with all authors and texts of the Middle Ages is reflected by the fact that his work was never abandoned, but instead became the building block for later efforts. His separation of 2 One of the earliest attempts is Johannes Trithemius’s Liber de scriptoribus ecclesiasticis (Basel, 1494) (accessible at www.mgh-bibliothek.de/digilib/quellen.htm). For other early continental efforts, see R.C. van Caenegem et al., Introduction aux sources de l’histoire médiévale, rev. edn. (Turnhout, 1997), pp. 220– 51. The national tradition in England goes back to the efforts of John Leland (†1552) and John Bale (†1563); a new edition and translation of the former has recently appeared: John Leland, De viris illustribus, ed. and trans. J. P. Carley (Toronto, 2010). 3 August Potthast, Bibliotheca historica medii aevi: Wegweiser durch die Geschichtswerke des europäischen Mittelalters bis 1500, rev. edn., 2 vols. (Berlin, 1896) (www.archive.org/details/ bibliothecahist00pottgoog). Potthast was assisting at the Monumenta Germaniae Historica in Berlin when he undertook the project. See H. Meisner’s entry on Potthast in Allgemeine deutsche Biographie 53 (Leipzig, 1907), pp. 102–5 (www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd117716200.html). 4 Potthast’s list of hagiographical literature would soon be surpassed by the Bollandists’ own repertory published at the end of the same century: Bibliotheca hagiographica Latina, Subsidia hagiographica 6 (Brussels, 1898–1901), with a Novum supplementum, Subsidia hagiographica 70 (Brussels, 1986). Claves and Clavigeri 255 individual entries into manuscripts, editions, translations, and scholarship was by and large adopted by subsequent repertories. Of course in Potthast’s time, information for each of these categories was available only for the most well known and studied texts. Often mentioned alongside Potthast is Ulysse Chevalier’s Répertoire des sources historiques du moyen âge, though the aims of this work are a bit different. Chevalier compiled biographical information not just on authors but persons mentioned in narrative sources; therefore, the scope is even bigger, yet the thoroughness much diminished.5 Possibly because scholars wanted research tools that centered on their own national history (we are, after all, speaking about the early twentieth century), new repertories appeared, such as Molinier’s six-volume collection treating the sources of medieval France.6 In these decades, attempts to treat medieval sources without reference to modern political geography were rare.7 From the 1930s, various contributions to the Bulletin du Cange contained simplified lists of authors, texts, and editions within modern national boundaries.8 The Corpus Christianorum project to provide critical editions for texts from early Christianity began in the middle of the twentieth century under the auspices of Eligius Dekkers. The series has been an undisputed success, and with its Continuatio mediævalis and other offshoots, has expanded well beyond the original plan. Dekkers’s original vision was confined to the patristic age, ending with the Venerable Bede (†735). The first task of this new editorial project was to identify the sources and 5 Ulysse Chevalier, Répertoire des sources historiques du moyen âge: Bio-bibliographie, rev. edn., 2 vols. (Paris, 1905–1907; original edn., 1877–1886). Chevalier also compiled a repertory of place names: Répertoire des sources historiques du moyen âge: Topo-bibliographie, 2 vols. (Montbéliard, 1894–1903). 6 Auguste Molinier, Les sources de l’histoire de France des origines aux guerres d’Italie (1494), 6 vols. (Paris, 1901–1906). I will signal here Molinier’s interesting, though often overlooked, general introduction to the sources of medieval France in vol. 5 (Paris, 1904), pp. ii–clv (www.archive.org/details/ lessourcesdelhis05moli). 7 Manitius’s survey of medieval Latin literature stands out not only for its quality and longevity, but also for its broad geographical treatment: Max Manitius, Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters, 3 vols. (Munich, 1911–1931). The identically titled survey by Franz Brunhölzl, Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters, 2 vols. (Munich, 1975–1992), is also an excellent reference, though it has not superseded Manitius in every respect. The French translation of Brunhölzl’s work, Histoire de la littérature latine du moyen âge, trans. H. Rochais, 2 vols. (Turnhout, 1990–1996), includes updated bibliographic notes by J.-P. Bouhout. 8 Vincenzo Ussani et al, “Index Latinitatis Italicae medii aevi antiquioris,” Archivum Latinitatis medii aevi 6 (1931): 1–96. James Baxter et al., “An index of British and Irish Latin writers, 400–1520,” ALMA 7 (1932): 110–219. Maurice Hélin, “Index scriptorum operumque Latino-Belgicorum medii aevi,” ALMA 8 (1933): 77–163, with continuations in vol. 16 (1941): 65–75 and vol. 18 (1943/44): 31–3.

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