'In volumine Longobardo': new light on the date and origin of the Latin translation of St Anthony's seven letters

Conference item

The seven letters of St Antony of Egypt, after the ground-breaking study of Samuel Rubenson, have been revealed to be one of our earliest sources for Egyptian monastic and ascetic theology of the fourth century. However, the letters, except for some frag- ments, are not extant in their original Coptic version and the most reliable source we have is a Georgian version and a complete Latin translation of the seven letters. This Latin version, which was first published, in 1516 is usually considered by scholarship as a humanist translation made on the basis of a lost Greek original. This view has remained ever since accepted in later scholarship. A deeper examination of the Latin text and its transmission, however, has revealed a completely different story and the Latin translation turned out to be much earlier than it was previously assumed. It should therefore be regarded as an early composition, made sometimes between the fifth and seventh centuries which, beside the fifth century Syriac translation of Anthony’s first letter, makes it one of the earliest extant witnesses to Antony’s letters.

Authors: Tóth, P

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Peeters Publishers
• Host title: Papers presented at the Sixteenth International Conference on Patristic Studies held in Oxford 2011
• Pages: 47-57
• Series: Studia Patristica
• Series number: 64
• Place of publication: Leuven
• Publication date: 2013-07-05
• Acceptance date: 2011-08-13
• Event title: Sixteenth International Conference on Patristic Studies
• Event location: Oxford
• Event start date: 2011-08-08
• Event end date: 2011-08-12
• ISBN: 9789042929975
• Language: English