Alea evangelii (CCC 122)
- Latin
- prose, diagram
A type of board game based on the Eusebian canons, which is uniquely attested in a 12th-century Irish gospel-book written at Bangor (Oxford, Corpus Christi College, MS 122). It consists of an introduction based perhaps on an earlier colophon, an annotated diagram representing the board, and a full explanation in Latin covering two pages in the manuscript. The introduction ascribes its invention to two persons, ‘a certain Franco’ (or a Frank) and to a Romanus sapiens named Israel, who is commonly identified with the 10th-century scholar Israel the Grammarian. It also states that Dub Innse, bishop of Bangor [d. 953], had brought the alea from the household of King Æthelstan.
Author
Ascribed to: Israel the Grammarian
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Israel the Grammarian
(fl. c.900–c.970)
Tenth-century teacher, scholar and poet. He had been a student of John Scottus Eriugena, spent time at the court of King Æthelstan, found a new patron in Rotbert, archbishop of Trier, and became tutor to Bruno, brother of Otto I and later archbishop of Cologne. Breton, Welsh and Irish origins have been variously ascribed to him, with the Breton hypothesis currently finding most favour in scholarship.
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The introduction ascribes the diagram to Israel.
Contributors
Dub Innse [bishop of Bangor]
See more An earlier colophon by Dub Innse may be what underlies the introduction, which credits him with ‘bringing’ away the Alea evangelium from the household/court (domus) of King Æthelstan. The verb used is detulit and it may be that he had copied the diagram, as Lapidge assumes, rather than brought with him the original manuscript to Bangor.
Dub Innse ... bishop of Bangor
(d. 953)
Bishop of Bangor. It is thought that he did not hold the abbacy, seeing as the title of abbot is given to Máel Cothaid mac Lachtnáin, who died in the same year as Dub Innse.
See more An earlier colophon by Dub Innse may be what underlies the introduction, which credits him with ‘bringing’ away the Alea evangelium from the household/court (domus) of King Æthelstan. The verb used is detulit and it may be that he had copied the diagram, as Lapidge assumes, rather than brought with him the original manuscript to Bangor.
The introduction in its present form, the two-page Latin explanation which accompanies the diagram and at least some of the annotations would seem to be the work of the 12th-century Irish scribe. Lapidge points out that the scribe did not understand that Israel was a personal name when he referred to him as the ‘Roman Jew’.
Manuscripts
ff. 5v–6v
Language
- Latin
- Secondary language(s): Middle Irish
- The notes to the diagram, which are mostly in Latin, contain two in Irish, including fer gabala, lit. ‘man of seizure’.
Form
prose, diagram (primary)
Samples
Alea evangelii (CCC 122) • Edition by J. Armitage Robinson, together with a transcription of the notes to the diagram. • Source document
The diagram.
Alea evangelii (CCC 122) • Edition by J. Armitage Robinson, together with a transcription of the notes to the diagram. • Source document
Alea evangelii (CCC 122) • Edition by J. Armitage Robinson, together with a transcription of the notes to the diagram. • Source document
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.] Robinson, J. Armitage, Times of St Dunstan: Ford Lectures delivered in the University of Oxford in the Michaelmas Term, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1923. 188 pp.
HathiTrust: <link>
173–177, with introduction and paraphrase
Secondary sources (select)
Howlett, David, “Alea Evangelii”, in: Jacques Elfassi, Cécile Lanéry, and Anne-Marie Turcan-Verkerk (eds), Amicorum societas: mélanges offerts à François Dolbeau pour son 65e anniversaire, Firenze: SISMEL Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2013. 335–360.
Bayless, Martha, “Alea, tæfl, and related games: vocabulary and context”, in: Katherine OʼBrien OʼKeeffe, and Andy Orchard (eds), Latin learning and English lore: studies in Anglo-Saxon literature for Michael Lapidge, 2 vols, vol. 2, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005. 9–27.
web page identifiers
page name: Alea evangelii (CCC 122)
page url: https://codecs.vanhamel.nl/Alea_evangelii_(CCC_122)
redirect: https://codecs.vanhamel.nl/Special:Redirect/page/64319
numerical alternative: https://codecs.vanhamel.nl/index.php?curid=64319
page ID: 64319
page ID tracker: https://codecs.vanhamel.nl/index.php?title=Show:ID&id=64319
Contributors
Dennis Groenewegen
Page created
February 2023, last updated: September 2023
