Texts
Vitae sanctorum Hiberniae
- Irish hagiography
The three principal collections of Irish saints’ lives written in Latin: (1) the so-called (Codex) Salmanticensis (or Salamanca) collection, (2) the (Codex) Insulensis or Oxford collection, and (3) the (Codex) Kilkenniensis or Dublin collection. Since Plummer published his edition in 1910, the Latin designation Vitae sanctorum Hiberniae is sometimes used to refer to these collectively.
Manuscripts
- [S] The (Codex) Salmanticensis collection, edited by W. W. Heist (1965)
- S (Plummer) =
- [O] The (Codex) Insulensis collection or as Richard Sharpe has called it, the Oxford collection. The Latin name is a borrowing from John Colgan, who variously referred to one of the manuscripts he used as Codex Insulensis or Codex Insulae Sanctorum.
- R1 (Plummer) =
- R2 (Plummer) = Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson B 505 1, ff. 1-210 = Codex Insulensis (MS R2 or I) [s. xivex]An early copy of the former, with the order of the Lives rearranged to follow the order of the calendar, from St Patrick onwards.
- F (Plummer) =
- R2 (Plummer) =
- R1 (Plummer) =
- [D] The (Codex) Kilkenniensis or (Codex Ardmachanus) collection, otherwise referred to by Richard Sharpe as the Dublin collection:
- M (Plummer) =
- T (Plummer) = Dublin, Trinity College, MS 175 2 [s. xv2]
Associated items
Vita sancti Abbani (abbatis de Magh Arnaide)Vita sancti Abbani (abbatis de Magh Arnaide)Latin Life of St Abbán of Mag Arnaide (Moyarney, now Adamstown in Co. Wexford)Vita sancti BrendaniVita sancti Brendani
Latin Life of St Brénainn, abbot of Clonfert, of which there are five main recensions.
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.] Heist, W. W. [ed.], Vitae sanctorum Hiberniae: ex codice olim Salmanticensi, nunc Bruxellensi. Lives of the saints of Ireland, from the Salamanca manuscript now of Brussels, Subsidia Hagiographica 28, Brussels: Société des Bollandistes, 1965.
[ed.] De Smedt, Charles, and Joseph De Backer, Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae ex codice Salmanticensi, Edinburgh and London, 1888.
Münchener DigitalisierungsZentrum – scanned copy: <link>
[ed.] Plummer, Charles, Vitae sanctorum Hiberniae, partim hactenus ineditae, 2 vols, vol. 1, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1910.
Internet Archive: <link>
Secondary sources (select)
Sharpe, Richard, Medieval Irish saints’ lives: an introduction to Vitae sanctorum Hiberniae, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991.
Plummer, Charles, Vitae sanctorum Hiberniae, partim hactenus ineditae, 2 vols, vol. 1, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1910.
Internet Archive: <link>
[‘Introduction’]
web page identifiers
page name: Vitae sanctorum Hiberniae
page url: https://codecs.vanhamel.nl/Vitae_sanctorum_Hiberniae
redirect: https://codecs.vanhamel.nl/Special:Redirect/page/20573
numerical alternative: https://codecs.vanhamel.nl/index.php?curid=20573
page ID: 20573
page ID tracker: https://codecs.vanhamel.nl/index.php?title=Show:ID&id=20573
Contributors
C. A., Dennis Groenewegen
Page created
April 2014, last updated: December 2021