Texts
Oratio Gildae
Incoming data
The catalogue entry for this text has not been published as yet. Until then, a selection of data is made available below.
Latin poem attributed to Gildas, which takes the form of a prayer for a journey on land and at sea. Metrically, it is closely related to the Lorica of Laidcenn and on grounds of similarities was provisionally dated by Bernard Bischoff to the late 7th century.
Manuscript witnesses
Text
Text
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS lat. 1153
rubric: Oratio Gildae pro itineris [et] navigii prosperitate [...] s. ix. Shorter version.
f. 95v
Sources
Primary sources Text editions and/or modern translations – in whole or in part – along with publications containing additions and corrections, if known. Diplomatic editions, facsimiles and digital image reproductions of the manuscripts are not always listed here but may be found in entries for the relevant manuscripts. For historical purposes, early editions, transcriptions and translations are not excluded, even if their reliability does not meet modern standards.
[ed.] Bischoff, Bernhard, “Das Reisegebet des Gildas”, in: Bernhard Bischoff (ed.), Anecdota novissima: Texte des vierten bis sechzehnten Jahrhunderts, 7, Stuttgart: Karl W. Hiersemann, 1984. 154–161.
Based on the MS in Bibl. Mazarine and BNF lat. 1153.
[ed.] Strecker, Karl [ed.], Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, vol. 4, fasc. 2; 3, MGH Antiquitates, Berlin: Weidmann, 1923.
Dmgh.de: <link>
618–619 Based on BNF lat. 1153.
[ed.] Meyer, Wilhelm, “Gildae oratio rythmica; Die alten Reisegebete; Papae Gelasii deprecatio”, Nachrichten von der Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, Philologisch-historische Klasse (1912): 48–108.
Internet Archive: <link>
56–57 (text) Based on BNF lat. 1153.
Secondary sources (select)
Howlett, David, “Seven studies in seventh-century texts”, Peritia 10 (1996): 1–70.
abstract:
The following works are examined here: Versus de annis a principio [beg. Deus a quo facta fuit]; Ailerán’s Interpretatio mystica and Canon euangeliorum; three verse prayers from the Book of Cerne; seven works by and for Cummianus Longus (†662), including Celebra Iuda, which is here edited; three works by Virgilius Maro Grammaticus; the Oratio Gildae and a verse paraphrase of Carmen paschale, taken as examples of Hiberno-Latin hendecasyllables; and the Lorica of Laidcenn mac Baíth (†661), for which a date of AD 659 is suggested. On the basis of these texts, two inferences may be made of Irish culture of the period: the intellectual agility and acuity exhibited in this precisely constructed prose and verse was not the achievement of a few isolated clerics; and the title sapiens was not given lightly or loosely by the monastic annalists.
