Texts
Vitae sanctorum Hiberniae
Incoming data
The three principal collections of Irish saints’ lives written in Latin: (1) the so-called (Codex) Salmanticensis (or Salamanca) collection, (2) the (Codex) Insulensis or Oxford collection, and (3) the (Codex) Kilkenniensis or Dublin collection. Since Plummer published his edition in 1910, the Latin designation Vitae sanctorum Hiberniae is sometimes used to refer to these collectively.
Manuscript witnesses
Text
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson B 505/ff. 1-210
An early copy of the former, with the order of the Lives rearranged to follow the order of the calendar, from St Patrick onwards.
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.] Heist, W. W. [ed.], Vitae sanctorum Hiberniae: ex codice olim Salmanticensi, nunc Bruxellensi. Lives of the saints of Ireland, from the Salamanca manuscript now of Brussels, Subsidia Hagiographica, 28, Brussels: Société des Bollandistes, 1965.
[ed.] De Smedt, Charles, and Joseph De Backer, Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae ex codice Salmanticensi, Edinburgh and London, 1888.
Münchener DigitalisierungsZentrum – scanned copy: <link>
[ed.] Plummer, Charles, Vitae sanctorum Hiberniae, partim hactenus ineditae, 2 vols, vol. 1, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1910.
Internet Archive: <link>
Secondary sources (select)
Sharpe, Richard, Medieval Irish saints’ lives: an introduction to Vitae sanctorum Hiberniae, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991.
Plummer, Charles, Vitae sanctorum Hiberniae, partim hactenus ineditae, 2 vols, vol. 1, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1910.
Internet Archive: <link>
[‘Introduction’]
