Manuscripts
Schaffhausen, Stadtbibliothek, MS Generalia 1 Adomnán’s Vita sancti Columbae
- Latin
- s. viiiin
- Irish manuscripts
- vellum
An important manuscript of the Vita sancti Columbae by Adomnán
Identifiers
Location
Switzerland Schaffhausen, Stadtbibliothek
Shelfmark
Generalia 1
Provenance and related aspects
Language
Latin
Date
s. viiiin
early 8th century
Origin, provenance
Origin: Iona
See more ass. with Dorbéne mac Altaíni
See more
Í (Choluim Chille) ... Iona
No short description available
See more ass. with Dorbéne mac Altaíni
Dorbéne mac Altaíni
(ob. 713)
Abbot of Iona for only a brief period of time in 713, the year in which he died. He is commonly identified with the scribe Dorbbeneus who signs his name in the Schaffhausen manuscript of the Vita sancti Columbae.
See more
Later provenance: Reichenau
See more By the 10th century, the manuscript was housed in the Reichenau monastery (Picard).
Reichenau
Benedictine monastery founded on Reichenau Island in Lake Constance (southern Germany).
See more By the 10th century, the manuscript was housed in the Reichenau monastery (Picard).
Hands, scribes
Hands indexed:
Scribe
(ob. 713)
Dorbbéne mac Altaíni
Abbot of Iona for only a brief period of time in 713, the year in which he died. He is commonly identified with the scribe Dorbbeneus who signs his name in the Schaffhausen manuscript of the Vita sancti Columbae.
See more Specimens (IIIF):
Dorbbeneus, commonly thought to refer to Dorbéne mac Altaíni (d. 713), abbot of Iona.
Dorbéne mac AltaíniDorbéne mac Altaíni(ob. 713)
Dorbbéne mac Altaíni
Abbot of Iona for only a brief period of time in 713, the year in which he died. He is commonly identified with the scribe Dorbbeneus who signs his name in the Schaffhausen manuscript of the Vita sancti Columbae.
See more Specimens (IIIF):
Codicological information
Material
vellum
The list below has been collated from the table of contents, if available on this page,Progress in this area is being made piecemeal. Full and partial tables of contents are available for a small number of manuscripts. and incoming annotations for individual texts (again, if available).Whenever catalogue entries about texts are annotated with information about particular manuscript witnesses, these manuscripts can be queried for the texts that are linked to them.
Sources
Primary sources This section typically includes references to diplomatic editions, facsimiles and photographic reproductions, notably digital image archives, of at least a major portion of the manuscript. For editions of individual texts, see their separate entries.
[dig. img.] “Schaffhausen, Stadtbibliothek, Gen. 1”, Christoph Flüeler [project director], and Urs Baumann [photographer], e-codices: virtual manuscript library of Switzerland, Online: University of Freiburg, 2008–present. URL: <http://www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en/list/one/sbs/0001>.
[facs.] Bracken, Damian, and Eric Graff, The Schaffhausen Adomnán, 2 vols, Cork: Cork University Press, 2008–2014.
abstract:
This is the first in a series of facsimiles of major Irish historical manuscripts. Each will be published with an interpretive commentary. This first book reproduces the earliest surviving copy of Adomnán's Vita Columbae, the Life of St Columba, dating from the late seventh century. Columba established one of the greatest Irish monastic and cultural foundations of the Middle Ages on the Island of Iona off the west coast of Scotland, in the 560s.
The monastery of Iona had close associations with the kings of the northern part of Ireland, Scotland, and northern England. It was the spiritual centre responsible for the conversion of Scotland and northern England to Christianity, and was the mother house of a great monastic federation that stretched from Lindisfarne, in the east of England, to Durrow, in the heart of Ireland. The Life was written by Adomnán, the ninth abbot of Iona, before 697, to mark the centenary of his patron's death. Like Columba, he was a member of the powerful Uí Néill (O'Neill) dynasty.
Adomnán's Life of St Columba has been described as perhaps the most sophisticated saint's life to be written in western Europe in the course of the seventh century. It bears witness to the scholarly and spiritual attainments of early Irish Christian culture. The manuscript reprinted in facsimile is one of the foremost achievements of that learned culture and has been preserved in the Stadtbibliothek, Schaffhausen, Switzerland since the eighteenth century.
Introduction-Damian Bracken; Report on the Codex: Schaffhausen, Stadtbibliothek, Generalia 1-Eric Graff; Schaffhausen, Stadtbibliothek, Generalia 1: The history of the manuscript-Jean-Michel Picard; The Schaffhausen manuscript and the composition of the Life of Columba-Mark Stansbury; Some orthographic features of the Schaffhausen manuscript- Anthony Harvey; A note on the Irish manuscripts Commission and the Schaffhausen manuscript of Adomnán's Vita Columbae- Deirdre McMahon; Index.
The monastery of Iona had close associations with the kings of the northern part of Ireland, Scotland, and northern England. It was the spiritual centre responsible for the conversion of Scotland and northern England to Christianity, and was the mother house of a great monastic federation that stretched from Lindisfarne, in the east of England, to Durrow, in the heart of Ireland. The Life was written by Adomnán, the ninth abbot of Iona, before 697, to mark the centenary of his patron's death. Like Columba, he was a member of the powerful Uí Néill (O'Neill) dynasty.
Adomnán's Life of St Columba has been described as perhaps the most sophisticated saint's life to be written in western Europe in the course of the seventh century. It bears witness to the scholarly and spiritual attainments of early Irish Christian culture. The manuscript reprinted in facsimile is one of the foremost achievements of that learned culture and has been preserved in the Stadtbibliothek, Schaffhausen, Switzerland since the eighteenth century.
Introduction-Damian Bracken; Report on the Codex: Schaffhausen, Stadtbibliothek, Generalia 1-Eric Graff; Schaffhausen, Stadtbibliothek, Generalia 1: The history of the manuscript-Jean-Michel Picard; The Schaffhausen manuscript and the composition of the Life of Columba-Mark Stansbury; Some orthographic features of the Schaffhausen manuscript- Anthony Harvey; A note on the Irish manuscripts Commission and the Schaffhausen manuscript of Adomnán's Vita Columbae- Deirdre McMahon; Index.
For editions of the text, see Vita sancti Columbae (Adomnán)
Secondary sources (select)
Picard, J. M., “The Schaffhausen Adomnán—a unique witness to Hiberno-Latin”, Peritia 1 (1982): 216–249.
Picard, Jean-Michel, “Schaffhausen Generalia 1 and the textual transmission of Adomnán’s Vita Columbae on the continent”, in: Próinséas Ní Chatháin, and Michael Richter (eds), Ireland and Europe in the early Middle Ages: texts and transmissions / Irland und Europa im früheren Mittelalter: Texte und Überlieferung, Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2002. 95–102.
External links
web page identifiers
page name: Schaffhausen, Stadtbibliothek, MS Generalia 1
page url: https://codecs.vanhamel.nl/Schaffhausen,_Stadtbibliothek,_MS_Generalia_1
redirect: https://codecs.vanhamel.nl/Special:Redirect/page/11642
numerical alternative: https://codecs.vanhamel.nl/index.php?curid=11642
page ID: 11642
page ID tracker: https://codecs.vanhamel.nl/index.php?title=Show:ID&id=11642
Contributors
Dennis Groenewegen
Page created
May 2012, last updated: December 2022
