Texts
Octo pondera unde factus est Adam
Incoming data
The catalogue entry for this text has not been published as yet. Until then, a selection of data is made available below.
Short early medieval Latin treatise about the creation of Adam, the nature of the eight (or seven) cosmic components of which his body was made, and the four letters of his name. It has often been suggested that it ultimately derives from a Greek text of 2 Enoch 30: 8-9, although a Greek dialogue text of the Ioca monachorum kind has also been suggested as a possible source.
Manuscript witnesses
MS
Durham, Cathedral Library, MS A.IV.19/ff. 66-89
rubric: De octo pondera quibus factus est Adam (a) On the eight parts or ‘pounds’ (pondera) from which Adam was created; foll. by questions and answers on (a) the nature of cold breath and hot breath and (c) on the origin of wind and its relationship to the seraphim.
f. 86rb.10–
MS
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS lat. 5327/ff. 25–170
incipit: Venit nuper ad manus meas quedam s[c]edula quam diligentius perscrutans repperi de Adam rationem oppido provuidam -
f. 81r
Text
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS lat. 5327/ff. 25–170
Part of a group of texts preceding the Vita Aedae.
f. 81
Text
Sélestat, Bibliothèque humaniste, MS 1a
rubric: Incipit de septem ponderibus unde factus es [sic] Adam A version that is part of De plasmatione Adam.
MS
Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Reg. lat. 846/ff. 99-114
incipit: Factus est autem homo primus adam de octo partes. Prima pars de limo terrae
f. 106v
MS
Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Reg. lat. 846/ff. 99-114
incipit: De octo pondera factus est. Pondus lime: inde facta est karo
f. 106v
Text
Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Reg. lat. 846/ff. 99-114
Found associated with the item of type A above and placed before the beginning of De plasmatione Adam. Where Sélestat has pondus floris, this manuscript has pondus solis, a reading consistent with later tradition.
Text
Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Reg. lat. 846/ff. 99-114
This text, written in Caroline minuscule and Tironian notes, contains a shorter version of the paragraph about Adam’s name and is conjoined with a text of type E (below). It is followed by a text of De plasmatione Adam.
f. 106v
Text
ff. 81v–82r
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.] Förster, Max, “Adams Erschaffung und Namengebung”, Archiv fur Religionswissenschaft 11 (1907–1908): 477–529.
Internet Archive: <link>
478–481 (a); 496 (b) (a) Text from CCCC 326, with variant readings from 5 other MSS; (b) Vatican reg. lat. 846, f. 106v, compared to Adam septipartite in Sélestat MS 1, f. 74v.
[ed.] Schmitz, Wilhelm, Miscellanea Tironiana: aus dem Codex Vaticanus Latinus, Reginae Christinae 846 (fol. 99-114), Leipzig, 1896.
35 ff Edition from the Vatican MS. Corrigenda were offered by Paul Legendre (see the manuscript entry).
[tr.] Macaskill, Grant, and Eamon Greenwood [contr.], “Adam octipartite/septipartite: a new translation and introduction”, in: Richard Bauckham, James R. Davila, and Alexander Panayotov (eds), The Old Testament pseudepigrapha: more noncanonical scriptures, vol. 1, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2013. 3–21.
Translation from the Vatican MS, together with the naming of Adam from CCCC (tr. Greenwood). See also Macaskill 2017 below, which takes its translation from this publication.
Secondary sources (select)
McNamara, Martin, “Irish”, in: Alexander Kulik, Gabriele Boccaccini, Lorenzo DiTommaso, David Hamidovic, Michael Stone, and Jason Zurawski (eds), A guide to early Jewish text and traditions in Christian transmission, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019. 211–236.
abstract:
In the early Irish Church (600–800 CE) there were apocrypha of Oriental origin and in the tenth-century poem Saltair na Rann (“Psalter of Quatrains”) the account of the Fall of Adam and Eve is recognized as having analogues with rabbinic tradition and also a poem on Adam’s head. This essay first considers Jewish texts that have, or may have, influenced Irish tradition. Jewish influence on Irish traditions is then considered: Latin conjoined treatises on Adam and Eve; Adam created in agro Damasceno, in the field of Damascus; the seven or eight parts from which Adam was made; the four elements from which Adam was made (with rabbinic analogues); the naming of Adam (Slavonic Enoch and Sibylline Oracles 3:24–26); Penance of Adam and Eve; Sunday, Sabbath, respite for the damned; XV Signs before Doomsday; Jewish traditions in Saltair na Rann; the influence of Hebrew Bible traditions on early Irish genealogies and imagined prehistory.
(source: Oxford Scholarship Online)
218–219
