Texts
Proverbia Grecorum
Incoming data
The catalogue entry for this text has not been published as yet. Until then, a selection of data is made available below.
An early medieval Latin compilation of gnomic maxims attributed to the Greeks, perhaps dating to the 7th century. The earliest transmission of its material is closely associated with Insular, particularly Irish scholarship, as seen in works of Sedulius Scottus and the B-recension of the Collectio canonum Hibernensis.
Manuscript witnesses
Text
Bernkastel-Kues, Bibliothek des St. Nikolaus-Hospitals, MS 52
context: Collectaneum miscellaneum (Sedulius Scottus) rubric: Incipiunt Prouerbia Grecorum incipit: Hec uero de Grecorum prudentia Prefatory letter and 74 statements.
f. 246r-v
Text
Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 100
context: Vita Ælfredi regis incipit: Super modicum fundamentum aedificat iustus et paulatim ad maiora defluit 1 quotation in Asser's Life of Alfred c.88. Lapidge suggests that Asser may have known the Proverbia directly.
Text
Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 415
rubric: De quinque temporibus regni in Prouerbiis Grecorum legitur 10 statements.
pp. 195–199
Text
Text
Liber Proverbiorum Graecorum inutilis (lost)
A manuscript, or manuscript text, now lost but mentioned in the library catalogue of Lincoln Cathedral (Librum Prouerbiorum Graecorum inutilem).
MS
Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, MS Clm 14096/ff. 1-101
context: Testimonia divinae scripturae et patrum incl. Proverbia Grecorum Ed. from this manuscript and one in Verona, by Albert Lehner, Florilegia: florilegium Frisingense (Clm 6433); Testimonia divinae scripturae (et patrum) (1987). Incl., on f. 63v, 4 statements from the Proverbia Grecorum.
in section: f. 63r–
Text
Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, MS Clm 14096/ff. 1-101
context: Testimonia divinae scripturae et patrum rubric: Scriptum est in Prouerbiis Gregorum 4 statements.
f. 63v
Text
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS 572
context: De raris fabulis incipit: Facies sapientis manifestat ignota uel obscura 1 quotation in De raris fabulis.
Text
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Hatton 42/part 1 (ff. 1r-142r)
context: Collectio canonum Hibernensis rubric: In Prouerbiis Grecorum leguntur 6 statements.
f. 42r
Text
MS
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS lat. 3182
context: rubric: De causa qua viri mulieribus precellunt. Augustinus incl. Synodus II S. Patricii, Proverbia Grecorum, Synodus Hibernensis Collection of excerpts from the Bible, patristic literature, Isidore, Orosius, etc., mostly on the subject of marriage and adoption. Other excerpts incl.: on pp. 305-306, a second, abridged text of the Synodus Hibernensis, beg. Sanguinem episcopi (see the fuller text on p. 302); Synodus II S. Patricii; Proverbia Grecorum.
in section: p. 302–
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.] Simpson, Dean, Sedulii Scotti collectaneum miscellaneum, Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Mediaevalis, 67, Turnhout: Brepols, 1988.
3–10
[ed.] Bischoff, Bernhard, “Nachlese zu den Proverbia Graecorum (6. Jh.?)”, in: Bernhard Bischoff (ed.), Anecdota novissima: Texte des vierten bis sechzehnten Jahrhunderts, 7, Stuttgart: Karl W. Hiersemann, 1984. 98–100.
Gives the text of Munich Clm 14096.
[ed] Hellmann, Siegmund, Sedulius Scottus, Quellen und Untersuchungen zur lateinischen Philologie des Mittelalters, Munich, 1906.
Internet Archive: <link>, <link>
121–135 [‘Proverbia Grecorum’] direct link
Secondary sources (select)
Wright, Charles, “The Prouerbia Grecorum, the Norman Anonymous, and the early medieval ideology of kingship: some new manuscript evidence”, in: Gernot R. Wieland, Carin Ruff, and Ross G. Arthur (eds), Insignis sophiae arcator: essays in honour of Michael W. Herren on his 65th birthday, 6, Turnhout: Brepols, 2006. 193–215.
Anton, Hans Hubert, “Königsvorstellungen bei Iren und Franken im Vergleich”, in: Franz-Reiner Erkens (ed.), Das frühmittelalterliche Königtum: ideelle und religiöse Grundlagen, 49, Berlin, New York: De Gruyter, 2005. 270–330.
Lapidge, Michael, “Asser’s reading”, in: Timothy Reuter (ed.), Alfred the Great: papers from the Eleventh-Centenary Conferences, Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003. 27–48.
On the quotations in Asser and De raris fabulis and the notion that the Proverbia may have been part of Latin education in Wales, or at least at St David's (rudimenta Sancti Degui).
Scharer, Anton, “The writing of history at King Alfred’s court”, Early Medieval Europe 5:2 (1996): 177–206.
195 Identifies the source of Asser's quotation as the Collectaneum of Sedulius Scottus (cf. Lapidge above).
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.
98 [id. 344.]
Kenney, James F., “Chapter VI: The expansion of Irish Christianity”, in: James F. Kenney, The sources for the early history of Ireland: an introduction and guide. Volume 1: ecclesiastical, Revised ed., 11, New York: Octagon, 1966. 486–621.
566 [id. 374.]
