Texts

Versus Columbani ad Hunaldum

Incoming data

The catalogue entry for this text has not been published as yet. Until then, a selection of data is made available below.

Latin acrostic poem attributed to one Columbanus whose name and that of his addressee are spelled out in the first letter of each line. The addressee is a pupil named Hunaldus. In manuscripts, the poem is usually found together with two other quantitive poems attributed to Columbanus, Ad Sethum and less frequently, Columbanus Fidolio fratri suo. If it is Columbanus of Bobbio who is being referred to, his authorship is not usually accepted. It has been suggested instead that a namesake had composed the three poems and scholars have sought to identify him with known Irish expatriates such as Columbanus, abbot of Saint-Trond/Sint-Truiden, and Colmán nepos Cracavist.

Manuscript witnesses

Text

Monte Cassino, Archivio e Biblioteca dell’Abbazia, MS 230

Ad Hunaldum only (fragment?). The text accompanies Paschal tables.

p. 46

Text

Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, MS Clm 6406

Text

Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, MS Clm 17208

Text

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS lat. 8303

Text

St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, MS 273

Text

St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, MS 899

Text

Turin, Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria, MS F IV 29

Text

Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, MS 806

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.] [tr.] Walker, G. S. M. [ed.], Sancti Columbani opera, Scriptores Latini Hiberniae, 2, Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1957.

CELT – Epistulae (text): <link> CELT – Epistulae (translation): <link>

186–189 (text and translation); lvi–lviii (introduction)

Secondary sources (select)

Herren, Michael W., “Some quantitative poems attributed to Columbanus of Bobbio”, in: John Marenbon (ed.), Poetry and philosophy in the Middle Ages: a Festschrift for Peter Dronke, 29, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2000. 99–112.

Lapidge, Michael, “Epilogue: did Columbanus compose metrical verse?”, in: Michael Lapidge (ed.), Columbanus: studies on the Latin writings, 17, Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1997. 274–285.

Smit, Johannes W., Studies on the language and style of Columba the Younger (Columbanus), Amsterdam: Adolf M. Hakkert, 1971. viii + 263 pp.

esp. 223–238