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.

MSS 1. 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. Lists Bury St Edmunds: ML 7.7. ABBO OF FLEURY 2 A-S Vers ÆLS Edmund (B1.3.31). Quots/Cits see below. Refs ÆLS 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 (p 70 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 p 87 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 – Refs none.

In this work, perhaps written in England (Guerreau-Jalabert 1982 p 200 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. 3 ABBO OF FLEURY Computus [ABBO.FLOR.Comp.]: see also ARDUA CONNEXAE LIBAT SACRARIA FORMAE (POEMS). ed.: PL 90.727–820: see below.

MSS – Refs none.

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 manu- script, 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.

MSS Oxford, St John’s College 17: HG 683. Lists – A-S Vers none. Quots/Cits see below. Refs see 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. ABBO OF FLEURY 4 MSS – Refs none.

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.”

De cursu septem planetarum per zodiacum circulum. See DE DIFFERENTIA CIRCULI ET SPHAERAE.

Denique luna totius zodiaci signa. See DE DIFFERENTIA CIRCULI ET SPHAERAE.

De differentia circuli et sphaerae [ABBO.FLOR.Diff.circ.sphaer.]: Thorndike and Kibre (1963) cols 370 and 1530; Saxl and Meier (1953) 1.157 and 198. ed.: R. B. Thomson 1985 pp 120–33.

MSS 1. Cambridge, Trinity College R.15.32 (945): HG 186. 2. London, BL Cotton Vitellius A. xii: HG 398. 3. London, BL Harley 2506: HG 428.5. 4. London, BL Royal 13. A. xi: HG 483. 5. Oxford, St John’s College 17: HG 683. Lists – A-S Vers none. Quots/Cits see below. Refs none.

R. B. Thomson (1985) considers this astronomical treatise (beginning “Studiosis astrologie primo sciendum est per geometricam . . .” and titled “Astronomy” in Thorndike and Kibre 1963 col 1530) to be made up of two separate works, restricting the title used here to the first (which he also refers to as the Sententia Abbonis de ratione spere) and identifying the second untitled work by its beginning, Denique luna totius zodiaci signa. In his edition, however, he lineates them continuously. He also prints a graph and a table that occur between the sections in more than half of the manuscripts (but not in the Harley or Royal manuscripts listed above). The table, titled De cursu septem planetarum per zodiacum circulum, is “of Pliny’s planetary latitudes with Abbo’s dimension of the zodiacal band added”; the table is “a list of planetary harmonic intervals according to Pliny as well as the distances from the earth to the moon, the moon to the sun and the sun to the stars” (R. B. Thomson 1985 p 115). Following Van de Vyver (1935 p 141), Baker and Lapidge (EETS SS 15 p xliv) consider the parts a single work (but see Lapidge and Baker 1997 p 9) and note that it “is found in all Byrhtferthian computi,” including the St John’s manuscript (see further P. Baker 1982 and Lapidge 1984 pp 348–51) and London, BL Cotton Tiberius C. i (+ BL Harley 3667; written after the Anglo-Saxon period, but see NRK 196), and “in other Abbonian computi” in English manuscripts, all too late for HG. The Vitellius manuscript and Exeter, Cathedral Library 3507 provide further hints of the transmission of this text and DE DUPLICI SIGNORUM ORTU VEL OCCASU. According to Stevens (CCCM 44.173 note 35), the exemplar of the Exeter manuscript, which contains HRABANUS MAURUS’s DE COMPUTO and ISIDORE’s DE NATURA RERUM, “was wrapped with two bifolia containing Abbo’s Sententia, including those composed at Ramsey, when these contents were transcribed into . . . Cotton Vitellius A.xii.” Baker and Lapidge (EETS SS 15 pp lxxxviii–lxxxix) argue, however, that BYRHTFERTH probably did not know a manuscript of this type. On the relationship of these manuscripts, see also Ker and Piper (1969–92 2.813). Baker and Lapidge (EETS SS 15 p xliv) classify the Trinity manuscript as “a computus of Winchester type that has received some Abbonian material.” They list but do not comment on the Royal manuscript. The Harley manuscript was probably written at Fleury, but by the early eleventh century it was in England, perhaps Ramsey (Lapidge and 5 ABBO OF FLEURY Baker 1997 p 8). In their description of Byrhtferth’s Computus, Baker and Lapidge (EETS SS 15 pp 425–26) print a passage from this work (R. B. Thomson 1985 lines 95–116), identifying it as the source for Byrhtferth’s ENCHIRIDION (ByM 1; B20.20.1; ed. EETS SS 15) III.x.186–95. They also note that its accompanying rota is the source for figure 21 in the Enchiridion.

De duplici signorum ortu vel occasu [ABBO.FLOR.Dupl.sign.ort.]: Thorndike and Kibre (1963) col 372. ed.: R. B. Thomson 1988 p 673.

MSS 1. Cambridge, Trinity College R.15.32 (945): HG 186. 2. London, BL Cotton Vitellius A. xii: HG 398. Lists – Refs none.

This brief work, ascribed to Abbo in the Cambridge manuscript, discusses heavenly bodies that sometimes appear in both the evening and the morning sky. It concludes with seven lines from VIRGIL’s GEORGICS and an excerpt from SERVIUS’s COMMENTARY, identified in the Cambridge manuscript as a separate work, De quinque circulis mundi, by Abbo (seeVan de Vyver 1935 p 140). R. B. Thomson (1988 p 672) accepts that Abbo wrote this work in England (see Van de Vyver 1935 p 147), but it is surprising that BYRHTFERTH did not use it (EETS SS 15 pp lxxxviii–lxxxix; see the comments on the Vitellius manuscript in DE DIFFERENTIA CIRCULI ET SPHAERAE). Thomson edits it from six manuscripts, five of which he notes are English. The sixth, Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana Reg. lat. 596, also contains Abbo’s QUAESTIONES GRAMMATICALES, and the other manuscript of this work, London, BL Additional 10972, includes De duplici signorum ortu vel occasu but without passages from Virgil and Servius.

Excerptio ex Hygino de figuratione signorum [ABBO.FLOR.Excerp.Hyg.]: Thorndike and Kibre (1963) col 400; Saxl and Meier (1953) 1.197. ed.: unedited.

MSS 1. Cambridge, Trinity College R.15.32 (945): HG 186. 2. London, BL Royal 13. A. xi: HG 483. Lists – Refs none.

Abbo compiled a catalogue of stars (beginning “Denique, ut dicit Plinius, inter omnia LXXII sunt signa . . .”) summarizing the third book of HYGINUS’s ASTRONOMICA. Van de Vyver (1935 pp 140–41, 147–49) argues it is his first work and that he brought it with him to England.

Quadratus hic equilaterus. See ARDUA CONNEXAE LIBAT SACRARIA FORMAE (POEMS).

De quinque circulis mundi. See DE DUPLICI SIGNORUM ORTU VEL OCCASU.

De quinque zonae caeli [ANON.Quin.zon.cael.]. ed.: Silk 1935 p 326 lines 10–21.

MSS Oxford, St John’s College 17: HG 683. Lists – Refs none.

In his discussion of a thirteenth-century French manuscript now in the Walters Art Gallery, Bober (1956–57 pp 67 and 93) designates this work, beginning “Iginus et alii astrologi ferunt quod quinque sunt zone celi,” as “Abbonian.” Baker and Lapidge (EETS SS 15 p 426) identify it, without reference to Abbo, as “from a gloss to Remigius of Auxerre’s Commentary on Boethius, De consolatione philosophie ii pr. 7” as edited by Silk (1935). Saxl and Meier (1953 1.131) note its presence in London, BL Cotton Tiberius C. i, again without associating it with Abbo.

Quoniam brevitatem. See ARDUA CONNEXAE LIBAT SACRARIA FORMAE (POEMS). ABBO OF FLEURY 6 Ratio Abbonis supra praefatum numerum. See ABACUS.

Sententia Abbonis de ratione spere. See DE DIFFERENTIA CIRCULI ET SPHAERAE.

De unciarum minutiis. See COMMENTARIUS IN CALCULUM VICTORII.

Poems

Prominent among Abbo’s surviving poems are three—ILLUSTRIS MERITO, O PRAESUL DUNSTANE, and SUMME SACER —addressed to DUNSTAN, of which the last two are good examples of the acrostic genre, following the conventions set by OPTATIANUS PORPHYRIUS. They ostensibly influenced Dunstan’s own acrostic poem, O PATER OMNIPOTENS (ICL 10972; ed. Lapidge 1975a pp 108–11). Dunstan liked the acrostic genre and he might owe to Abbo his knowledge of HRABANUS MAURUS’s versus intextus (from DE LAUDIBUS SANCTAE CRUCIS, figure 28; CCCM 100.216), which Dunstan himself adapted and copied into a full-page drawing on folio 1r of Oxford, Bodleian Library Auct. F.4.32 (SC 2176; HG 538; see Gneuss 1978 p 148 and Lapidge 1975a p 108). As noted in the general introduction above, much remains uncertain about Abbo’s verse compositions. Although not given separate entries here because we have no knowledge that they were known in Anglo-Saxon England, the following works deserve mention because they are not separately listed by Sharpe (HLW 1–4). First are twelve calendarial verses (ICL 394, 4551, 4970, 5388, 8348, 8528, 8600, 9354, 9565, 11154, 11254, and 12100) and an additional poem (ICL 13555), all by Abbo, that circulated with his computistica and can now be found in PL 90. His Syllogismorum Categoricorum et Hypotheticorum Enodatio (ed. Van de Vyver 1966; see also Schupp 1997) contains two longer poems (ICL 15186a and 11877a; ed. Van de Vyver 1966 pp 30–31 and 58) and other verses (ICL 5799a, 5658a, and 9467a; ed. Van de Vyver 1966 pp 40 and 46), and another poem (ICL 4946; PL 139.423) for Pope Gregory V appears at the conclusion of one of his letters. A sequence, “Valde lumen” (ed. AH 7.161; ICL 16976), and three verses found in one manuscript of his COMMENTARIUS IN CALCULUM VICTORII (ICL 10749; ed. Bubnov 1899 p 203) have been associated with him. On the verses in an Erfurt manuscript mentioned by Van de Vyver (1935 p 165 note 1), see Lendinara (1989), who identifies them as excerpts from the poem Quid suum virtutis.

Ardua connexae libat sacraria formae [ABBO.FLOR.Ard.conn.]: ICL 1006; Thorndike and Kibre (1963) col 127. ed.: Lapidge and Baker 1997 pp 12 and 14.

MSS Oxford, St John’s College 17: HG 683. Lists – Refs none.

This acrostic poem, modeled on OPTATIANUS PORPHYRIUS’s CARMEN XXV, is the first item in Abbo’s COMPUTUS, and so appears in manuscripts of this work, as well as those influenced by it, such as BYRHTFERTH’s COMPUTUS, represented by the Oxford manuscript. Baker and Lapidge (EETS SS 15 pp xliii–xliv), who refer to it as “an elaborate arithmetical and astronomical table in verse,” note that it is usually accompanied by one of two explanations: Quadratus hic equilaterus (ed. Lapidge and Baker 1997 p 16; Thorndike and Kibre 1963 col 1157) in Continental manuscripts of the Computus; and Quoniam brevitatem (ed. Lapidge and Baker 1997 pp 18–19) in English manuscripts. It also circulated independent of the Computus; for the manuscripts, see Lapidge and Baker 1997 p 3.

Illustris merito [ABBO.FLOR.Illust.]: ICL 7744. ed.: RS 71/1.462.

MSS London, BL Cotton Nero E. i: HG 344. Lists – Refs none. 7 ABBO OF SAINT-GERMAIN Addressed to DUNSTAN, this poem is preserved in chapter 5 of BYRHTFERTH’s VITA OSWALDI (see also OSWALDUS WIGORNIENSIS in ACTA SANCTORUM; Crawford 1929; and Lapidge 1975a p 91) preserved in the London manuscript. In addition to Raine’s edition (RS 71/1.462), it was printed by Stubbs (RS 63.412).

O decus et cui vernat honor [ANON.O.decus.]. ed.: Lapidge and Baker 1997 pp 22–23.

MSS – Lists none.

Preserved in a manuscript of BYRHTFERTH’s COMPUTUS (London, BL Harley 3667) is a complex acrostic poem that Lapidge and Baker (1997 p 6) attribute to Abbo. The identity of the addressee, possibly an Anglo-Saxon, is still an open question.

O praesul Dunstane [ABBO.FLOR.O.praes.]: ICL 10897. ed.: Gwara 1992 pp 222 and 226.

MSS London, BL Cotton Nero E. i: HG 344. Lists – Refs none.

This acrostic poem was composed by Abbo just before his departure from England in 987. It survives in BYRHTFERTH’s VITA OSWALDI (see ILLUSTRIS MERITO). In addition to editing the text from the London manuscript, Gwara provides a reconstruction of the figura along with the Latin prose exposition (p 224) and an English translation. Earlier editions are those of Raine (RS 71/1.461) and Stubbs (RS 63.411).

O Ramesiga cohors [ABBO.FLOR.O.Ramesi.]: ICL 11013. ed.: RS 71/1.431–32.

MSS London, BL Cotton Nero E. i: HG 344. Lists – Refs none.

Abbo’s poem on Ramsey Abbey is incorporated into chapter 3 of BYRHTFERTH’s VITA OSWALDI, as preserved in the London manuscript, from which it was printed by Raine (RS 71/1.431–32). It was also included by Andrew of Fleury in the Vita Gauzlini (ed. Bautier 1969 pp 94–97), and it appears in London, BL Additional 10792 following Abbo’s QUAESTIONES GRAMMATICALES (this manuscript was used by Mabillon for his edition that is reprinted in PL 39.534). The last line varies, appearing in the Vita Oswaldi as “Quos Christus semper salvet, honoret, amet,” and in the Vita Gauzlini as “Quos, Benedicte pater, iure tuere pares.” The Oxford manuscript agrees with the Vita Gauzlini, and the line was written by P. Daniel (see Bautier 1969 p 96 note 3 and Van de Vyver 1935 p 124 note 5). The poem also occurs in the fourteenth-century Erfurt manuscript that contains extracts of the Quaestiones grammaticales (Guerreau-Jalabert 1992 p 202).

In patris natique sui [ANON.Patr.nati.sui]. ed.: Lapidge and Baker 1997 p 24.

MSS London, BL Harley 2506. Lists – Refs none.

Two acrostic poems (this and TERMINAT HYGINUS) frame HYGINUS’s ASTRONOMICA in the Harley manuscript. Lapidge and Baker (1997 p 9) argue that the manuscript was “compiled for Abbo’s use at Fleury and subsequently taken by him to Ramsey.” Because of some metrical awkwardness, they conclude that the poems are the work of “a less proficient follower” of Abbo (p 10).

Summe sacer [ABBO.FLOR.Sum.sac.]: ICL 14822. ed.: Gwara 1992 pp 215–16. ABBO OF SAINT-GERMAIN8 MSS 1. London, BL Cotton Nero E. i: HG 344. 2. Oxford, St John’s College 17: HG 683. Lists – Refs none.

“Summe sacer,” a triple acrostic, was written after Abbo’s arrival in England. The poem appears on folio 3r of the Oxford manuscript (Hart 1970 p 31), where its original layout is preserved, but, as pointed out by Gwara (1992 p 205 note 13), the Worcester scribe of the London manuscript was not capable of reproducing the acrostic form of either this poem or O PRAESUL DUNSTANE. BYRHTFERTH incorporated it into chapter 5 of his VITA OSWALDI (see ILLUSTRIS MERITO). The Oxford manuscript contains Byrhtferth’s COMPUTUS (P. Baker 1982). Gwara’s edition, based on both manuscripts, is accompanied by an English translation (p 217). Raine’s edition (RS 71/1.460) prints the poem as part of the Vita Oswaldi. An earlier edition is that of Stubbs (RS 63.410).

Terminat Hyginus [ANON.Term.Hygin.]. ed.: Lapidge and Baker 1997 p 25.

MSS London, BL Harley 2506. Lists – Refs none.

See IN PATRIS NATIQUE SUI.

Patrizia Lendinara