Texts
Joca monachorum
Incoming data
A family of medieval question-and-answer texts on biblical topics and events, typically using humour as a pedagogical tool. A few of the earliest manuscript witnesses are known for their Irish connections.
Manuscript witnesses
MS
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS lat. 13246/ff. 1-8
incipit: Quit primus ex deo proceset uerbum
f. 7r–
Text
St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, MS 908
rubric: Incipit iocam monachorum incipit: Interrogatio: Quid primo ex domino processit? Suchier's MS C.
pp. 68–72
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.
Secondary sources (select)
Wright, Charles D., and Roger Wright, “Additions to the Bobbio Missal: De dies malus and Joca monachorum (fols. 6r-8v)”, in: Rob Meens, and Yitzhak Hen (eds), The Bobbio Missal. Liturgy and religious culture in Merovingian Gaul, 11, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. 79–139.
Wright, Charles D., “Apocryphal lore and insular tradition in St. Gall, Stiftsbibliothek MS 908”, in: Próinséas Ní Chatháin, and Michael Richter (eds), Irland und die Christenheit: Bibelstudien und Mission. Ireland and Christendom: the Bible and the missions, Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1987. 124–145.
Wright, Charles D., “From monks’ jokes to sages’ wisdom: the Joca monachorum tradition and the Irish Immacallam in dá thúarad”, in: Mary Garrison, Arpad P. Orbán, and Marco Mostert (eds), Spoken and written language: relations between Latin and the vernacular languages in the earlier Middle Ages, 24, Turnhout: Brepols, 2013. 199–225.
