The first eight chapters of Irenaeus’s Against Heresies (1.1–8) contain the oldest surviving account of Valentinian Gnosticism.1 No account has influenced ancient and modern understandings of Valentinian Gnosticism more than this one. Irenaeus, however, does not here relate Valentinus’s own thought. He provides, rather, a theological account circulating amongst Valentinians near the Rhône who considered themselves followers of the influential Valentinian named Ptolemaeus (Ptolemy).2 Irenaeus states (Against Heresies 1.pref.2) that his account draws upon conversations held with these Ptolemaic Valentinians as well as written sources obtained from them. But the particular author of these written sources and the relative importance of these writings to this group of Valentinians remains unknown.