Texts
De locis sanctis (Adomnán)
Incoming data
An early medieval Latin account of the holy places of the Near East, such as Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Alexandria and Constantinople. It is written by Adomnán, abbot of Iona, and said by him to be based on a travel account by Gaulish monk Arculf. It was presented to King Aldfrith, king of Northumbria, in 698.
Manuscript witnesses
Text
Text
Laon, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 92
Fragment.
Text
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS lat. 13048/ff. 1-30
Incomplete. The outer bifolium of the first quire and most of the fourth quire, except for leaves 2 and 7, are lost. These remaining leaves are currently mumbered ff. 7 and 8.
ff. 1–28
Text
MS
Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, MS 458
rubric: Orditur praefatio libri Arculfi episcopi maxime de locis sanctis Hierusalem Written by Hand 1. After a preface and list of chapters (ff. 1r-2r.3), the text proper begins on f. 2r, where it is headed, in green capital letters, Incipit Libellvs Arcvlfi. Includes architectural drawings: Church of the Holy Sepulchre (f. 4v), Church of Mount Sion (f 9v), a floor plan of the Chapel of Ascension (f. 11v) and the Church of Jacob's Well (f. 17v).
f. 1r–
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.] Geyer, P., O. Cuntz, A. Francheschini, and Robert Weber [et al., eds.], Itineraria et alia geographica: Itineraria Hierosolymitana. Itineraria Romana. Geographica, 2 vols, vol. 1, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina, 175, Turnhout: Brepols, 1965.
175–234 [‘Adamnani De locis sanctis’] Reprint, with only slight modifications, of Bieler's text published in 1958.
[ed.] Bieler, Ludwig [ed.], and Denis Meehan [tr.], “Adamnani de locis sanctis libri tres”, in: Denis Meehan [ed.], Adamnan’s De locis sanctis, 3, Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1958. 36–120.
[ed.] Geyer, Paul, Itinera hierosolymitana saeculi IIII-VIII, Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, 39, Prague, Vienna, Leipzig: F. Tempsky, G. Freytag, 1898.
Internet Archive: <link>
219–297 Edition based on four MSS, Y, P, Z and B.
[ed.] Migne, Jacques-Paul (ed.), Venantii Fortunati, Pictaviensis episcopi, opera omnia ... Defensori monachii [etc.], Patrologia Latina, 88, Paris, 1864.
[ed.] Gretser, Jacob, Adamanni Scotohiberni de situ Terrae Sanctae, Ingolstadt: apud Elisabetham Angermaria, for I. Hertsroy, 1619.
Google Books: <link>
Editio princeps based on an unknown exemplar.
Secondary sources (select)
Maddox, Melanie C., “Finding the City of God in the Lives of St Kevin: Glendalough and the history of the Irish celestial civitas”, in: Charles Doherty, Linda Doran, and Mary Kelly (eds), Glendalough: City of God, Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2011. 1–21.
OʼLoughlin, Thomas, Adomnán and the Holy Places: the perceptions of an Insular monk on the locations of the biblical drama, London, New York: Clark, 2007. xx + 348 pp.
OʼLoughlin, Thomas, “The exegetical purpose of Adomnán’s De locis sanctis”, Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies 24 (Winter, 1992): 37–53.
Lapidge, Michael, and Richard Sharpe, A bibliography of Celtic-Latin literature, 400-1200, Royal Irish Academy Dictionary of Medieval Latin from Celtic Sources, Ancillary Publications, 1, Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 1985.
[id. 304.]
