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Vita abbreviata sancti Winwaloei

  • Latin
  • prose

An abbreviated version of Wrdisten’s Life of St Winwaloe, in 21 lectiones, produced perhaps in northern France. BHL 8961.

Le Bourdellès (pp. 47-48): “l’auteur veut rivaliser en beau latin fleuri avec Wurdisten, mais il varie sans cesse l’expression par rapport à son modèle et bien entendu, lorsqu’il retrouve l’épisode de l'oie, ne garde pas oga, remplacé par anser. La diffusion des manuscrits dans le nord de la France ferait songer également à une fabrication des Bretons de Montreuil. Cependant, comme l’auteur supprime tous les noms propres bretons, sauf celui du héros principal, on ne peut s’empêcher de penser qu’il ignorait le breton, et nous sommes dès lors démunis d’indication sur le lieu de composition de cette oeuvre d’un habile latinist inconnu.”

Title
Vita abbreviata sancti Winwaloei
Title after Poulin (2003).
First words (prose)
  • Laudem Deo dicturi
Author
The author/redactor is anonymous.
Manuscripts
  • Douai, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 840 [s. xii]
    ff. 114v–119
  • Saint-Omer, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 716 vol. 2 [s. xii / s. xiii]
    ff. 90r–93v
  • Bruges, Public Library, MS 404 [s. xii4/4 / s. xiii]
    ff. 91ra–94ra
    Presumably the manuscript mentioned by C. Brett (via Le Bourdellès).
  • (Unidentified)A manuscript of Rouge-Cloítre, consulted by the Bollandists for their edition in ASS. The legendarium of Anton Geens, a canon regular of Rouge-Cloítre, is known to have contained a life of St Winwaloe, but there is some evidence to suggest that Geens used material of English provenance. See Lapidge, AB 126 (2008), where he tentatively suggests “BHL 8965?”.
  • (Unidentified)

    A manuscript of Vienna (Brett, via Le Bourdellès).

Language
  • Latin
Date

“au XIIe siècle au plus tard” (Poulin 2003).

Provenance
Origin: France, northFrance, north

No description available

See more The manuscript evidence suggests a northern French provenance. Le Bourdellès (see quotation) does not rule out the possibility that the author was a Breton at Montreuil-sur-Mur, but calls attention to the omission of proper names from the text and argues that they could be explained by the assumption that the author did not know Breton.
Form
prose (primary)
Textual relationships
(Possible) sources: Vita (longior) sancti WinwaloeiVita (longior) sancti WinwaloeiLonger version of the Latin Life of Winwaloeus (Guénolé) written by Wrdisten. BHL 8957–8958. The bulk of the work is in prose (BHL 8957), while the final part gives a shorter, metrical account (BHL 8958).
Related: Vita (longior) sancti WinwaloeiVita (longior) sancti WinwaloeiLonger version of the Latin Life of Winwaloeus (Guénolé) written by Wrdisten. BHL 8957–8958. The bulk of the work is in prose (BHL 8957), while the final part gives a shorter, metrical account (BHL 8958).

Classification

Subjects

origins of Brittany (narrative world), c. 4th-6th centuuries
origins of Brittany (narrative world), c. 4th-6th centuuries
id. 63849

The time of migration and settlememt in Brittany, c. 4th-6th century, typically associated with the founding rulers (Conan Meriadoc, Gradlon/Grallon, Guiomar/Guigemar, etc.) and early founding saints (e.g. Paul Aurelian, Samson of Dol, Tudwal/Tugdual of Tréguier, Winwaloe of Landevenneg, Brioc, Malo, Corentin of Quimper, Paternus/Padarn, Goueznou).

GwenoléGwenolé
(supp. fl. 6th c.)
Gwenole, Guénolé, Winwaloe, Winwaloeus, Guingalois
Reputed founder, first abbot and patron saint of Landévennec in Cornouaille (now in Finistère, Brittany).
See more

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.] Acta sanctorum quotquot toto orbe coluntur, vel a catholicis scriptoribus celebrantur, 68 vols, vol. 6: Martius I (1–8), Antwerp: Ioannes Meursius, 1668.
Google Books: <link>
250–254 [‘Vita ex MS Rubeae-Vallis’] Based on a manuscript from Rouge-Cloître.

Secondary sources (select)

Poulin, Joseph-Claude, “Les réécritures dans l’hagiographie bretonne (VIIe-XIe siècles)”, in: Monique Goullet, and Martin Heinzelmann (eds), La réécriture hagiographique dans l’occident médiéval: transformations formelles et idéologiques, 58, Ostfildern: Jan Thorbecke, 2003. 145–194.
Collection:  : <link>
188
Le Bourdellès, Hubert, “Les Bretons à Montreuil-sur-Mer vers 920: leur création culturelle”, Bulletin de la Société Nationale des Antiquaires de France 1995 (1997): 44–52.
Persée: <link>
esp. 47–48
web page identifiers
Contributors
Dennis Groenewegen
Page created
January 2023
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