Bibliography
Jacopo Bisagni
s. xx–xxi
Bisagni
Works authored
Bisagni, Jacopo, Amrae Coluimb Chille: a critical edition, Early Irish Text Series, 1, Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 2019.
abstract:
Amrae Coluimb Chille is a complex and fascinating Old Irish text. A unique tour de force of linguistic inventiveness, the Amrae laments the death of Colum Cille and praises equally his monastic perfection and his intellectual achievements, his asceticism and his pastoral leadership, his rejection of the secular world and his descent from a noble lineage.
This book provides the first ever complete critical edition of Amrae Coluimb Chille. The introduction offers a full study of the text’s manuscript transmission, language and style, as well as a discussion of its historical context. The Old Irish text is accompanied by a new English translation and is followed by a detailed commentary, a glossary and several appendices.
abstract:
Amrae Coluimb Chille is a complex and fascinating Old Irish text. A unique tour de force of linguistic inventiveness, the Amrae laments the death of Colum Cille and praises equally his monastic perfection and his intellectual achievements, his asceticism and his pastoral leadership, his rejection of the secular world and his descent from a noble lineage.
This book provides the first ever complete critical edition of Amrae Coluimb Chille. The introduction offers a full study of the text’s manuscript transmission, language and style, as well as a discussion of its historical context. The Old Irish text is accompanied by a new English translation and is followed by a detailed commentary, a glossary and several appendices.
Bisagni, Jacopo, From atoms to the cosmos: the Irish tradition of the divisions of time in the early Middle Ages, Kathleen Hughes Memorial Lectures, 18, Cambridge: ASNC, 2019.
: <link>
Websites
Bisagni, Jacopo, and Sarah Corrigan [contribs], A descriptive handlist of Breton manuscripts, c. AD 780–1100 (DHBM), Online: NUI Galway, 2021?–present. URL: <https://ircabritt.nuigalway.ie>.
Contributions to journals
Bisagni, Jacopo, “Les gloses inédites en vieux-breton et vieil-anglais dans Orléans 182”, Études Celtiques 44 (2018): 133–154.
abstract:
[FR] Dans son Dictionnaire des gloses en vieux-breton, Léon Fleuriot indiquait la présence d’une glose «sans doute bretonne » dans le manuscrit Orléans 182, écrit peut-être à Fleury vers 900. Une nouvelle analyse de ce manuscrit (qui contient une grande quantité de commentaires et gloses concernant presque la totalité de l’Ancien et du Nouveau Testament) montre qu’en fait les gloses vernaculaires sont plus nombreuses : cet article offre une discussion de cinq gloses vieux-bretonnes et de trois gloses anglo-saxonnes inédites. De plus, l’étude d’un certain nombre de passages, tirés principalement du long commentaire à la Genèse qui ouvre cette collection exégétique, indique que ces matériaux pourraient avoir été compilés originellement dans un scriptorium du Nord-Ouest de la France, et révèle des connexions textuelles possibles avec les gloses bibliques que l’on a attribuées à l’école de Théodore et Hadrien de Cantorbéry, ainsi que des liens encore plus marqués avec certains textes issus de l’école carolingienne d’Auxerre.
[EN] The newly-discovered Old Breton and Old English glosses in Orléans 182. In his Dictionnaire des gloses en vieux-breton, Léon Fleuriot pointed out the presence of a single, undoubtedly Breton gloss in the manuscript Orléans 182, written possibly at Fleury around AD 900. A new analysis of this manuscript (which contains a substantial number of commentaries and glosses concerning nearly all the books of the Old and New Testament) shows that the vernacular glosses are in fact more numerous : this article offers a discussion of eight newly discovered glosses – five in Old Breton and three in Old English. Moreover, the study of a select number of passages (mostly found in the long commentary on Genesis that opens this exegetical collection) indicates that these materials may have been originally compiled in a scriptorium of North-Western France, and also reveals possible textual connections with the biblical glosses attributed to the school of Theodore and Hadrian of Canterbury, as well as even stronger links with texts produced at the Carolingian school of Auxerre.
[EN] The newly-discovered Old Breton and Old English glosses in Orléans 182. In his Dictionnaire des gloses en vieux-breton, Léon Fleuriot pointed out the presence of a single, undoubtedly Breton gloss in the manuscript Orléans 182, written possibly at Fleury around AD 900. A new analysis of this manuscript (which contains a substantial number of commentaries and glosses concerning nearly all the books of the Old and New Testament) shows that the vernacular glosses are in fact more numerous : this article offers a discussion of eight newly discovered glosses – five in Old Breton and three in Old English. Moreover, the study of a select number of passages (mostly found in the long commentary on Genesis that opens this exegetical collection) indicates that these materials may have been originally compiled in a scriptorium of North-Western France, and also reveals possible textual connections with the biblical glosses attributed to the school of Theodore and Hadrian of Canterbury, as well as even stronger links with texts produced at the Carolingian school of Auxerre.
Persée – Études Celtiques, vol. 44, 2018: <link>
abstract:
[FR] Dans son Dictionnaire des gloses en vieux-breton, Léon Fleuriot indiquait la présence d’une glose «sans doute bretonne » dans le manuscrit Orléans 182, écrit peut-être à Fleury vers 900. Une nouvelle analyse de ce manuscrit (qui contient une grande quantité de commentaires et gloses concernant presque la totalité de l’Ancien et du Nouveau Testament) montre qu’en fait les gloses vernaculaires sont plus nombreuses : cet article offre une discussion de cinq gloses vieux-bretonnes et de trois gloses anglo-saxonnes inédites. De plus, l’étude d’un certain nombre de passages, tirés principalement du long commentaire à la Genèse qui ouvre cette collection exégétique, indique que ces matériaux pourraient avoir été compilés originellement dans un scriptorium du Nord-Ouest de la France, et révèle des connexions textuelles possibles avec les gloses bibliques que l’on a attribuées à l’école de Théodore et Hadrien de Cantorbéry, ainsi que des liens encore plus marqués avec certains textes issus de l’école carolingienne d’Auxerre.
[EN] The newly-discovered Old Breton and Old English glosses in Orléans 182. In his Dictionnaire des gloses en vieux-breton, Léon Fleuriot pointed out the presence of a single, undoubtedly Breton gloss in the manuscript Orléans 182, written possibly at Fleury around AD 900. A new analysis of this manuscript (which contains a substantial number of commentaries and glosses concerning nearly all the books of the Old and New Testament) shows that the vernacular glosses are in fact more numerous : this article offers a discussion of eight newly discovered glosses – five in Old Breton and three in Old English. Moreover, the study of a select number of passages (mostly found in the long commentary on Genesis that opens this exegetical collection) indicates that these materials may have been originally compiled in a scriptorium of North-Western France, and also reveals possible textual connections with the biblical glosses attributed to the school of Theodore and Hadrian of Canterbury, as well as even stronger links with texts produced at the Carolingian school of Auxerre.
[EN] The newly-discovered Old Breton and Old English glosses in Orléans 182. In his Dictionnaire des gloses en vieux-breton, Léon Fleuriot pointed out the presence of a single, undoubtedly Breton gloss in the manuscript Orléans 182, written possibly at Fleury around AD 900. A new analysis of this manuscript (which contains a substantial number of commentaries and glosses concerning nearly all the books of the Old and New Testament) shows that the vernacular glosses are in fact more numerous : this article offers a discussion of eight newly discovered glosses – five in Old Breton and three in Old English. Moreover, the study of a select number of passages (mostly found in the long commentary on Genesis that opens this exegetical collection) indicates that these materials may have been originally compiled in a scriptorium of North-Western France, and also reveals possible textual connections with the biblical glosses attributed to the school of Theodore and Hadrian of Canterbury, as well as even stronger links with texts produced at the Carolingian school of Auxerre.
Lambert, Pierre-Yves, and Jacopo Bisagni, “Notes sur quelques mots vieux-bretons du manuscrit Angers 477, fo 36ro”, Études Celtiques 44 (2018): 155–162.
abstract:
[FR] Le manuscrit des oeuvres scientifiques de Bède, Angers, Bibliothèque municipale, n° 477, a livré le stock le plus important de gloses en vieux-breton. Les mots vieux-bretons du f° 36r°, cependant, ne sont pas exactement des gloses ; ce sont neuf mots bretons qui traduisent les mentions portées en tête de plusieurs colonnes de chiffres romains. Or ce tableau de chiffres livre l’âge de la Lune lors des grandes fêtes mobiles de l’année liturgique. Les en-têtes de colonnes, très abrégées, sont en latin ou en vieil-irlandais. Léon Fleuriot avait correctement interprété la plupart des mots bretons, mais sans comprendre le fonctionnement du tableau. On explique ce tableau, qui apparaît plus ou moins développé dans un certain nombre d’autres manuscrits irlandais ou bretons. Il apparaît que k(a) l(ann) guiam «calendes d’hiver» (c’est-à-dire la Toussaint) est une erreur de traduction : l’abréviation sam̄- ne représentait pas l’irlandais Samuin «1er Novembre» (qui n’est pas une fête mobile !), mais sam-chásc, «la Pâques d’été», sixième dimanche après la Pentecôte, marquant la fin du second carême de l’année monastique irlandaise. Par ailleurs, ceplit, en première place dans la liste, est distinct de caplit «Jeudi saint» , et doit s’expliquer par un emprunt au latin capitula ou, mieux, capitulationes «têtes de chapitres, de colonnes».
[EN] Notes on some Old Breton words in MS Angers 477, f° 36r°.The manuscript of Bede’s scientific writings, Angers, Bibliothèque municipale n° 477, offers the largest body of Old Breton glosses ever found. The Old Breton words on f° 36ro, however, are not exactly glosses : these Old Breton words translate a number of labels placed at the head of several columns containing Roman numerals. This table of numerals gives the age of the moon on the date of the main mobile feasts of the liturgical year. The heavily abbreviated head words of columns are in Latin or Old Irish. Léon Fleuriot correctly interpreted most of the Breton words, but did not understand what the table’s purpose was. We explain this table, which occurs also, more or less developed, in other Irish or Breton manuscripts. K(a) l(ann) guiam “ Winter calends” (meaning, All Hallows) is a mistranslation, the abbreviated sam–-being wrongly understood as standing for Irish Samuin “ First of November”, obviously not a mobile feast, instead of sam-chásc “ Summer-Easter”, the sixth Sunday after Whit Sunday, the date which terminated the Second Lent in the Irish monastic year. In addition, ceplit, the first term of the list, is different from caplit “ Holy Thursday”, and may be explained as a borrowing from Latin capitula “ chapters”, or rather capitulationes “ heads of chapters, of columns”.
[EN] Notes on some Old Breton words in MS Angers 477, f° 36r°.The manuscript of Bede’s scientific writings, Angers, Bibliothèque municipale n° 477, offers the largest body of Old Breton glosses ever found. The Old Breton words on f° 36ro, however, are not exactly glosses : these Old Breton words translate a number of labels placed at the head of several columns containing Roman numerals. This table of numerals gives the age of the moon on the date of the main mobile feasts of the liturgical year. The heavily abbreviated head words of columns are in Latin or Old Irish. Léon Fleuriot correctly interpreted most of the Breton words, but did not understand what the table’s purpose was. We explain this table, which occurs also, more or less developed, in other Irish or Breton manuscripts. K(a) l(ann) guiam “ Winter calends” (meaning, All Hallows) is a mistranslation, the abbreviated sam–-being wrongly understood as standing for Irish Samuin “ First of November”, obviously not a mobile feast, instead of sam-chásc “ Summer-Easter”, the sixth Sunday after Whit Sunday, the date which terminated the Second Lent in the Irish monastic year. In addition, ceplit, the first term of the list, is different from caplit “ Holy Thursday”, and may be explained as a borrowing from Latin capitula “ chapters”, or rather capitulationes “ heads of chapters, of columns”.
Persée – Études Celtiques, vol. 44, 2018: <link>
abstract:
[FR] Le manuscrit des oeuvres scientifiques de Bède, Angers, Bibliothèque municipale, n° 477, a livré le stock le plus important de gloses en vieux-breton. Les mots vieux-bretons du f° 36r°, cependant, ne sont pas exactement des gloses ; ce sont neuf mots bretons qui traduisent les mentions portées en tête de plusieurs colonnes de chiffres romains. Or ce tableau de chiffres livre l’âge de la Lune lors des grandes fêtes mobiles de l’année liturgique. Les en-têtes de colonnes, très abrégées, sont en latin ou en vieil-irlandais. Léon Fleuriot avait correctement interprété la plupart des mots bretons, mais sans comprendre le fonctionnement du tableau. On explique ce tableau, qui apparaît plus ou moins développé dans un certain nombre d’autres manuscrits irlandais ou bretons. Il apparaît que k(a) l(ann) guiam «calendes d’hiver» (c’est-à-dire la Toussaint) est une erreur de traduction : l’abréviation sam̄- ne représentait pas l’irlandais Samuin «1er Novembre» (qui n’est pas une fête mobile !), mais sam-chásc, «la Pâques d’été», sixième dimanche après la Pentecôte, marquant la fin du second carême de l’année monastique irlandaise. Par ailleurs, ceplit, en première place dans la liste, est distinct de caplit «Jeudi saint» , et doit s’expliquer par un emprunt au latin capitula ou, mieux, capitulationes «têtes de chapitres, de colonnes».
[EN] Notes on some Old Breton words in MS Angers 477, f° 36r°.The manuscript of Bede’s scientific writings, Angers, Bibliothèque municipale n° 477, offers the largest body of Old Breton glosses ever found. The Old Breton words on f° 36ro, however, are not exactly glosses : these Old Breton words translate a number of labels placed at the head of several columns containing Roman numerals. This table of numerals gives the age of the moon on the date of the main mobile feasts of the liturgical year. The heavily abbreviated head words of columns are in Latin or Old Irish. Léon Fleuriot correctly interpreted most of the Breton words, but did not understand what the table’s purpose was. We explain this table, which occurs also, more or less developed, in other Irish or Breton manuscripts. K(a) l(ann) guiam “ Winter calends” (meaning, All Hallows) is a mistranslation, the abbreviated sam–-being wrongly understood as standing for Irish Samuin “ First of November”, obviously not a mobile feast, instead of sam-chásc “ Summer-Easter”, the sixth Sunday after Whit Sunday, the date which terminated the Second Lent in the Irish monastic year. In addition, ceplit, the first term of the list, is different from caplit “ Holy Thursday”, and may be explained as a borrowing from Latin capitula “ chapters”, or rather capitulationes “ heads of chapters, of columns”.
[EN] Notes on some Old Breton words in MS Angers 477, f° 36r°.The manuscript of Bede’s scientific writings, Angers, Bibliothèque municipale n° 477, offers the largest body of Old Breton glosses ever found. The Old Breton words on f° 36ro, however, are not exactly glosses : these Old Breton words translate a number of labels placed at the head of several columns containing Roman numerals. This table of numerals gives the age of the moon on the date of the main mobile feasts of the liturgical year. The heavily abbreviated head words of columns are in Latin or Old Irish. Léon Fleuriot correctly interpreted most of the Breton words, but did not understand what the table’s purpose was. We explain this table, which occurs also, more or less developed, in other Irish or Breton manuscripts. K(a) l(ann) guiam “ Winter calends” (meaning, All Hallows) is a mistranslation, the abbreviated sam–-being wrongly understood as standing for Irish Samuin “ First of November”, obviously not a mobile feast, instead of sam-chásc “ Summer-Easter”, the sixth Sunday after Whit Sunday, the date which terminated the Second Lent in the Irish monastic year. In addition, ceplit, the first term of the list, is different from caplit “ Holy Thursday”, and may be explained as a borrowing from Latin capitula “ chapters”, or rather capitulationes “ heads of chapters, of columns”.
Bisagni, Jacopo, “The newly-discovered Irish and Breton computistica in Città del Vaticano, BAV, MS Reg. Lat. 123”, Peritia 28 (2017): 13–34.
abstract:
The Vatican MS, BAV, Reg. lat. 123 (saec. xi, Ripoll), a computistical anthology, contains numerous excerpta of ultimate Irish provenance. Some of these materials may have reached Ripoll through a route of transmission that brought them first to Brittany, and from there to the scriptoria of Fleury-sur-Loire and Ripoll itself.
abstract:
The Vatican MS, BAV, Reg. lat. 123 (saec. xi, Ripoll), a computistical anthology, contains numerous excerpta of ultimate Irish provenance. Some of these materials may have reached Ripoll through a route of transmission that brought them first to Brittany, and from there to the scriptoria of Fleury-sur-Loire and Ripoll itself.
Bisagni, Jacopo, “Tarbḟlaith : une influence classique dans Audacht Morainn ?”, Études Celtiques 41 (2015): 145–191.
abstract:
[FR] Le speculum principum vieil-irlandais connu sous le nom d’Audacht Morainn (AM), écrit probablement vers l’an 700, présente une classification de quatre «types» de souverain : parmi ceux-ci, nous trouvons le tarbḟlaith, «chef-taureau», c’est-à-dire un prince violent qui règne dans un contexte de guerre permanente. L’analyse des différentes recensions d’AM suggère que la section concernant le tarbḟlaith constituerait en réalité un ajout relativement tardif (peut-être du IXe siècle ?) à une classification tripartite originelle. À la lumière de la suggestion récente de Brent Miles, selon laquelle les développements narratifs du motif du taureau dans la Táin Bó Cúailnge représenteraient – du moins partiellement – une imitation délibérée de certains modèles classiques, nous pouvons envisager la possibilité que le composé tarbḟlaith ait une origine similaire : en particulier, ce terme vieil-irlandais pourrait être un calque du groupement latin dux taurus, une épithète attribuée dans la Thébaïde de Stace au prince thébain exilé Polynice. Il est possible que le poème de Stace et le commentaire à la Thébaïde compilé par Lactantius Placidus aient été connus dans l’Irlande du haut Moyen Âge : ces textes auraient donc pu fournir aux literati ecclésiastiques irlandais des exempla négatifs concernant la royauté, exactement comme certains passages de la quatrième églogue de Virgile pourraient avoir contribué à la formation du concept du fír flathemon, «la justice du souverain», que nous trouvons dans l’AM. Il n’est d’ailleurs pas surprenant que la Thébaïde ait pu jouer un rôle dans la définition de l’idéologie royale irlandaise médiévale, notamment si l’on considère la présence de l’expression rex iniquus dans l’œuvre de Stace – une formule que l’on trouve aussi dans le traité hiberno-latin De duodecim abusivis saeculi, présentant des analogies avec l’AM –, ainsi que l’importance du thème de l’inceste dans les histoires concernant les fils d’Oedipe et dans le cadre narratif qui sous-tend l’allocution de Morann à Feradach Find Fechtnach dans l’AM.
[EN] Tarbḟlaith : a Classical influence in Audacht Morainn ?The Old Irish speculum principum known as Audacht Morainn (AM), probably written around AD 700, presents a classification of four ‘types’ of ruler : among these, we find the tarbḟlaith, ‘bull-ruler’, i. e. a violent prince who rules in a context of perpetual warfare. The analysis of the various recensions of AM suggests that the section concerning the tarbḟlaith may in fact represent a relatively late (ninth-century ?) addition to an original tripartite classification. In light of Brent Miles’s recent suggestion that the narrative developments of the bull motif in Táin Bó Cúailnge may represent – at least partially – a deliberate imitation of Classical models, we can now take into account the possibility that the compound tarbḟlaith may have a similar origin : in particular, this Old Irish term could be a calque on the Latin collocation dux taurus, an epithet attributed to the exiled Theban prince Polynices in Statius’s Thebaid. Statius’s poem and the commentary to the Thebaid by Lactantius Placidus may well have been known in Early Medieval Ireland : these texts could thus have provided the Irish ecclesiastical literati with negative exempla of kingship, just like some passages from Virgil’s fourth Eclogue may have contributed to the shaping of the concept of fír flathemon, ‘the justice of the ruler’, which we find in AM. After all, that the Thebaid may have played a role in the definition of the Medieval Irish ideology of kingship should not be particularly surprising, especially if we consider the presence of the phrase rex iniquus in Statius’s work – a phrase also found in the Hiberno-Latin tract De duodecim abusivis saeculi, presenting several similarities with AM – as well as the prominence of the incest motif in both the stories concerning Oedipus’s sons and the narrative background underlying Morann’s address to Feradach Find Fechtnach in AM.
[EN] Tarbḟlaith : a Classical influence in Audacht Morainn ?The Old Irish speculum principum known as Audacht Morainn (AM), probably written around AD 700, presents a classification of four ‘types’ of ruler : among these, we find the tarbḟlaith, ‘bull-ruler’, i. e. a violent prince who rules in a context of perpetual warfare. The analysis of the various recensions of AM suggests that the section concerning the tarbḟlaith may in fact represent a relatively late (ninth-century ?) addition to an original tripartite classification. In light of Brent Miles’s recent suggestion that the narrative developments of the bull motif in Táin Bó Cúailnge may represent – at least partially – a deliberate imitation of Classical models, we can now take into account the possibility that the compound tarbḟlaith may have a similar origin : in particular, this Old Irish term could be a calque on the Latin collocation dux taurus, an epithet attributed to the exiled Theban prince Polynices in Statius’s Thebaid. Statius’s poem and the commentary to the Thebaid by Lactantius Placidus may well have been known in Early Medieval Ireland : these texts could thus have provided the Irish ecclesiastical literati with negative exempla of kingship, just like some passages from Virgil’s fourth Eclogue may have contributed to the shaping of the concept of fír flathemon, ‘the justice of the ruler’, which we find in AM. After all, that the Thebaid may have played a role in the definition of the Medieval Irish ideology of kingship should not be particularly surprising, especially if we consider the presence of the phrase rex iniquus in Statius’s work – a phrase also found in the Hiberno-Latin tract De duodecim abusivis saeculi, presenting several similarities with AM – as well as the prominence of the incest motif in both the stories concerning Oedipus’s sons and the narrative background underlying Morann’s address to Feradach Find Fechtnach in AM.
Persée – Études Celtiques, vol. 41, 2015: <link>
abstract:
[FR] Le speculum principum vieil-irlandais connu sous le nom d’Audacht Morainn (AM), écrit probablement vers l’an 700, présente une classification de quatre «types» de souverain : parmi ceux-ci, nous trouvons le tarbḟlaith, «chef-taureau», c’est-à-dire un prince violent qui règne dans un contexte de guerre permanente. L’analyse des différentes recensions d’AM suggère que la section concernant le tarbḟlaith constituerait en réalité un ajout relativement tardif (peut-être du IXe siècle ?) à une classification tripartite originelle. À la lumière de la suggestion récente de Brent Miles, selon laquelle les développements narratifs du motif du taureau dans la Táin Bó Cúailnge représenteraient – du moins partiellement – une imitation délibérée de certains modèles classiques, nous pouvons envisager la possibilité que le composé tarbḟlaith ait une origine similaire : en particulier, ce terme vieil-irlandais pourrait être un calque du groupement latin dux taurus, une épithète attribuée dans la Thébaïde de Stace au prince thébain exilé Polynice. Il est possible que le poème de Stace et le commentaire à la Thébaïde compilé par Lactantius Placidus aient été connus dans l’Irlande du haut Moyen Âge : ces textes auraient donc pu fournir aux literati ecclésiastiques irlandais des exempla négatifs concernant la royauté, exactement comme certains passages de la quatrième églogue de Virgile pourraient avoir contribué à la formation du concept du fír flathemon, «la justice du souverain», que nous trouvons dans l’AM. Il n’est d’ailleurs pas surprenant que la Thébaïde ait pu jouer un rôle dans la définition de l’idéologie royale irlandaise médiévale, notamment si l’on considère la présence de l’expression rex iniquus dans l’œuvre de Stace – une formule que l’on trouve aussi dans le traité hiberno-latin De duodecim abusivis saeculi, présentant des analogies avec l’AM –, ainsi que l’importance du thème de l’inceste dans les histoires concernant les fils d’Oedipe et dans le cadre narratif qui sous-tend l’allocution de Morann à Feradach Find Fechtnach dans l’AM.
[EN] Tarbḟlaith : a Classical influence in Audacht Morainn ?The Old Irish speculum principum known as Audacht Morainn (AM), probably written around AD 700, presents a classification of four ‘types’ of ruler : among these, we find the tarbḟlaith, ‘bull-ruler’, i. e. a violent prince who rules in a context of perpetual warfare. The analysis of the various recensions of AM suggests that the section concerning the tarbḟlaith may in fact represent a relatively late (ninth-century ?) addition to an original tripartite classification. In light of Brent Miles’s recent suggestion that the narrative developments of the bull motif in Táin Bó Cúailnge may represent – at least partially – a deliberate imitation of Classical models, we can now take into account the possibility that the compound tarbḟlaith may have a similar origin : in particular, this Old Irish term could be a calque on the Latin collocation dux taurus, an epithet attributed to the exiled Theban prince Polynices in Statius’s Thebaid. Statius’s poem and the commentary to the Thebaid by Lactantius Placidus may well have been known in Early Medieval Ireland : these texts could thus have provided the Irish ecclesiastical literati with negative exempla of kingship, just like some passages from Virgil’s fourth Eclogue may have contributed to the shaping of the concept of fír flathemon, ‘the justice of the ruler’, which we find in AM. After all, that the Thebaid may have played a role in the definition of the Medieval Irish ideology of kingship should not be particularly surprising, especially if we consider the presence of the phrase rex iniquus in Statius’s work – a phrase also found in the Hiberno-Latin tract De duodecim abusivis saeculi, presenting several similarities with AM – as well as the prominence of the incest motif in both the stories concerning Oedipus’s sons and the narrative background underlying Morann’s address to Feradach Find Fechtnach in AM.
[EN] Tarbḟlaith : a Classical influence in Audacht Morainn ?The Old Irish speculum principum known as Audacht Morainn (AM), probably written around AD 700, presents a classification of four ‘types’ of ruler : among these, we find the tarbḟlaith, ‘bull-ruler’, i. e. a violent prince who rules in a context of perpetual warfare. The analysis of the various recensions of AM suggests that the section concerning the tarbḟlaith may in fact represent a relatively late (ninth-century ?) addition to an original tripartite classification. In light of Brent Miles’s recent suggestion that the narrative developments of the bull motif in Táin Bó Cúailnge may represent – at least partially – a deliberate imitation of Classical models, we can now take into account the possibility that the compound tarbḟlaith may have a similar origin : in particular, this Old Irish term could be a calque on the Latin collocation dux taurus, an epithet attributed to the exiled Theban prince Polynices in Statius’s Thebaid. Statius’s poem and the commentary to the Thebaid by Lactantius Placidus may well have been known in Early Medieval Ireland : these texts could thus have provided the Irish ecclesiastical literati with negative exempla of kingship, just like some passages from Virgil’s fourth Eclogue may have contributed to the shaping of the concept of fír flathemon, ‘the justice of the ruler’, which we find in AM. After all, that the Thebaid may have played a role in the definition of the Medieval Irish ideology of kingship should not be particularly surprising, especially if we consider the presence of the phrase rex iniquus in Statius’s work – a phrase also found in the Hiberno-Latin tract De duodecim abusivis saeculi, presenting several similarities with AM – as well as the prominence of the incest motif in both the stories concerning Oedipus’s sons and the narrative background underlying Morann’s address to Feradach Find Fechtnach in AM.
Bisagni, Jacopo, “Prolegomena to the study of code-switching in the Old Irish glosses”, Peritia 24–25 (2013–2014): 1–58.
abstract:
This article investigates the frequent alternation of Latin and Old Irish in several collections of early medieval Irish glosses (especially focussing on the glosses to the Epistles of St Paul in Würzburg, Universitatsbibliothek, MS M.p.th.f.12), in the attempt to ascertain how modern language contact and code-switching theories (Myers-Scotton’s Matrix Language Frame - or MLF - model in primis) may help us understand this phenomenon, as well as the exact nature of the linguistic relationship between Hiberno-Latin and the vernacular among the medieval Irish literati. Criteria for identifying what can be legitimately defined as ‘written code-switching’ are discussed, and a methodology for the study of code-switching in medieval glosses is proposed.
abstract:
This article investigates the frequent alternation of Latin and Old Irish in several collections of early medieval Irish glosses (especially focussing on the glosses to the Epistles of St Paul in Würzburg, Universitatsbibliothek, MS M.p.th.f.12), in the attempt to ascertain how modern language contact and code-switching theories (Myers-Scotton’s Matrix Language Frame - or MLF - model in primis) may help us understand this phenomenon, as well as the exact nature of the linguistic relationship between Hiberno-Latin and the vernacular among the medieval Irish literati. Criteria for identifying what can be legitimately defined as ‘written code-switching’ are discussed, and a methodology for the study of code-switching in medieval glosses is proposed.
abstract:
The author argues that a section of the newly-discovered eighth-century Irish computistica in Paris, BnF, lat. 6400b may contain a citation from a (lost?) work of Columbanus.
Bisagni, Jacopo, “The origins of the preterite of the Old Irish copula and substantive verb: an overview and new ideas”, Journal of Celtic Linguistics 14 (2012): 1–29.
abstract:
As is well known, Old Irish presented a morphological and functional distinction between the copula and the so-called 'substantive verb'. While in the present indicative the former is based on the PIE root *h1es- and the latter on PIE *steh2- , all other tenses and moods of both verbs are formed from the PIE root *bhuH-. Although these forms have often attracted the attention of scholars, several details of their prehistory are still unclear. This article will focus on the origins of the preterital forms: in particular, a solution for the striking difference of vocalism between the 3rd singular of the substantive verb (boí) and the copula (absolute ba, conjunct -bo, -bu) will be proposed. It will also be shown that the answer to this specific problem can shed some light on the Irish differentiation of the two forms of the verb 'to be', a process which, as will be suggested, may depend on the same mechanism which brought about the long-debated distinction between absolute and conjunct flexion in Old Irish.
abstract:
As is well known, Old Irish presented a morphological and functional distinction between the copula and the so-called 'substantive verb'. While in the present indicative the former is based on the PIE root *h1es- and the latter on PIE *steh2- , all other tenses and moods of both verbs are formed from the PIE root *bhuH-. Although these forms have often attracted the attention of scholars, several details of their prehistory are still unclear. This article will focus on the origins of the preterital forms: in particular, a solution for the striking difference of vocalism between the 3rd singular of the substantive verb (boí) and the copula (absolute ba, conjunct -bo, -bu) will be proposed. It will also be shown that the answer to this specific problem can shed some light on the Irish differentiation of the two forms of the verb 'to be', a process which, as will be suggested, may depend on the same mechanism which brought about the long-debated distinction between absolute and conjunct flexion in Old Irish.
Jacopo Bisagni, “De dertien telwoorden van Einsiedeln”, in: Kelten: Mededelingen van de Stichting A. G. van Hamel voor Keltische Studies 50 (2011): 15–17.
Bisagni, Jacopo, and Immo Warntjes, “Latin and Old Irish in the Munich computus: a reassessment and further evidence”, Ériu 57 (2007): 1–33.
abstract:
This article analyses the relatively rare phenomenon of code-switching and code-mixing from Latin to Old Irish in the Munich Computus. All (including previously unnoticed) instances of Old Irish in this Latin text are discussed, both from the linguistic point of view and as regards the reasons for their application. The author of the Munich Computus, writing in AD 719 and consequently being one of the earliest compilers of a comprehensive computistical textbook, faced the difficult task of transferring classroom teaching into writing without a model for this task at hand. In this context, it is argued that the shift to an informal register (Old Irish) was employed to serve specific didactical purposes, to facilitate the understanding of complicated technical material. Additionally, this analysis sheds more light on the function and nature of the Munich Computus itself.
abstract:
This article analyses the relatively rare phenomenon of code-switching and code-mixing from Latin to Old Irish in the Munich Computus. All (including previously unnoticed) instances of Old Irish in this Latin text are discussed, both from the linguistic point of view and as regards the reasons for their application. The author of the Munich Computus, writing in AD 719 and consequently being one of the earliest compilers of a comprehensive computistical textbook, faced the difficult task of transferring classroom teaching into writing without a model for this task at hand. In this context, it is argued that the shift to an informal register (Old Irish) was employed to serve specific didactical purposes, to facilitate the understanding of complicated technical material. Additionally, this analysis sheds more light on the function and nature of the Munich Computus itself.
Contributions to edited collections or authored works
Bisagni, Jacopo, “Flutes, pipes, or bagpipes? Observations on the terminology of woodwind instruments in Old and Middle Irish”, in: Pádraic Moran, and Immo Warntjes (eds), Early medieval Ireland and Europe: chronology, contacts, scholarship. A Festschrift for Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, 14, Turnhout: Brepols, 2015. 343–394.
abstract:
Old and Middle Irish sources offer a rich array of terms referring to woodwind instruments. However, terms like buinne, cuisech, cuisle, fetán, pípa, etc. are variously translated as ‘flute’, ‘whistle’, ‘pipe’, ‘bagpipe’, and the like, seemingly without much consideration for the organological reality underlying these lexical items. This article will look at the linguistic and textual evidence relating to some of these terms, with the aim of achieving a more precise identification of the musical instruments in question.
abstract:
Old and Middle Irish sources offer a rich array of terms referring to woodwind instruments. However, terms like buinne, cuisech, cuisle, fetán, pípa, etc. are variously translated as ‘flute’, ‘whistle’, ‘pipe’, ‘bagpipe’, and the like, seemingly without much consideration for the organological reality underlying these lexical items. This article will look at the linguistic and textual evidence relating to some of these terms, with the aim of achieving a more precise identification of the musical instruments in question.
