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The Question of the Authorship of the ‘Milleloquium Veritatis S. Augustini’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 July 2017

Rudolph Arbesmann*
Affiliation:
Fordham University

Extract

The Augustinian friar Bartholomew of Urbino, as he is usually called after the town of his birth where he served as bishop during the last three years of his life (1347–1350), is best known for his still valuable Milleloquium veritatis S. Augustini. This monumental concordance contains some fifteen thousand excerpts from the writings of St. Augustine, grouped under about one thousand alphabetically arranged key words (for instance, abstinentia, ecclesia, fides, haeresis, iustitia, lex, praedestinatio, etc.) illustrating Augustine's doctrines on these topics. The work, for which Bartholomew's friend Petrarch furnished two poetical embellishments in the form of as many alternate sets of verses, was a success. Bearing witness to its wide diffusion and appreciation are over thirty MSS still extant in northern and central Europe (Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, The Netherlands, and Poland), and about the same number in French, English, Italian, and Spanish libraries. It also went through five printings: Lyons 1555; Paris 1645, 1649, and 1672; Brescia 1734.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Fordham University Press 

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References

1 Of recent literature on Bartholomew of Urbino we may mention especially: Van Moé, E., ‘Les Ermites de Saint-Augustin amis de Pétrarque,’ Mélanges d'Archéologie et d'Histoire 46 (1929) 267–70; Perini, D. A., Bibliographia Augustiniana cum notis biographicis: Auctores Itali (4 vols.; Florence 1929–37) 1.203–205; Th. Disdier, M., ‘Barthélemy de Urbino,’ DHGE 6 (1932) 1034f.; U. Mariani, Il Petrarca e gli Agostiniani (Rome 1946; repr. 1959) 33–37; Fitzpatrick, V. A., ‘Bartholomaeus of Urbino: The Sermons Embraced in his Milleloquium S. Augustini,’ unpubl. M.A. thesis Cath. Univ. of America (Washington, D.C. 1954); Arbesmann, R., Der Augustinereremitenorden und der Beginn der humanistischen Bewegung (Cassiciacum 19; Würzburg 1965) 36–55. For a list of earlier literature on Bartholomew, see ibid. 37 n. 95.Google Scholar

2 See Peebles, B. M., ‘The Verse Embellishments of the ”Milleloquium Sancti Augustini,”Traditio 10 (1954) 555–66.Google Scholar

3 See Zumkeller, A., ‘Manuskripte von Werken der Autoren des Augustiner-Eremitenordens in mitteleuropäischen Bibliotheken,’ Augustiniana 11 (1961) 282f.Google Scholar

4 See Fitzpatrick, , ‘Bartholomaeus of Urbino’ (n. 1 supra) 3941.Google Scholar

5 We quote the Milleloquium according to the Brescia edition of 1734: Sancti Aurelii Augustini Hipponensis Episcopi Milleloquium veritatis a F. Bartholomaeo Urbinate Episcopo digestum (2 vols.; Brixiae, J. Baptista Bossinus, 1734). In this edition (henceforth quoted as ed. Brix.) the dedicatory letter to Pope Clement VI has no pagination.Google Scholar

6 Ed. Brix. 2.1160.Google Scholar

7 See Lehmann, P., ‘Mittelalterliche Büchertitel,’ Sb. Akad. Munich 1948, Heft 4.63.Google Scholar

8 This obviously erroneous conjecture has recently been advanced by the author of the library catalogue of the cathedral of Tortosa (Spain), entitled: Los Códices Medievales de la Catedral de Tortosa (Barcelona 1962). In describing MS 68 of this library, a richly illuminated fourteenth-century parchment codex of 411 folios, containing Bartholomew's Milleloquium S. Augustini, he states (p. 215): ‘Nótese que O'Callaghan [he refers to R. Callaghan, Los Códices de la Catedral de Tortosa (Tortosa 1897)] rotuló dicha obra Milleloquium, o Mileloquio, creyendo llamarse así por ser mil los pensamientos de San Agustin que contenía. Pero la verdad es que su autor la tituló Melliloquium, por la riquisima miel de la sanísima doctrina agustiniana que contiene.’ I wish to thank Professor Julian G. Plante, Director of the Hill Monastic Manuscript Library, Saint John's University, Collegeville, Minnesota, for having called my attention to the Tortosa catalogue.Google Scholar

9 In a letter to Bartholomew, Petrarch calls the Milleloquium ‘res maioris opere quam glorie’ (Petrarca, Le familiari 8.6.1; ed. V. Rossi 2 [Florence 1934] 173).Google Scholar

10 Ed. Brix. 1.695–711.Google Scholar

11 Ibid. 2.1085.Google Scholar

12 Ibid 2.1089.Google Scholar

13 Ibid.Google Scholar

14 Like the dedicatory letter, the prologue is without pagination in the Brescia edition. An almost identical collection of elogia in praise of St. Augustine, entitled ‘Commendatio S. Augustini ex diversis auctoritatibus doctorum,’ is found in Jordan of Saxony's Collectanea Augustiniana, preserved in MS Paris, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal 251, fol. 71V–fol. 81V.Google Scholar

15 Ed. Brix. 2.1067–1160. In the Brescia edition the additional texts are, to our knowledge, arranged in the same way as in the MSS and in the ed. princeps, Lyons 1555.Google Scholar

16 ‘Quorum omnium librorum, tractatuum, epistularum, homiliarum et sermonum quae vidi, nomina, continentium principia, et ubi expedit, retractationem quam [Augustinus] fecit, in fine huius operis abbreviando posui.’ See also the introductory sentence of the Index librorum (ed. Brix. 2.1067): ‘Quia in Epistola huic compilationi praemissa, promisi omnium librorum Augustini, quos habui, nomina, sive titulos in fine describere, nunc promissum servare volens, occurrit cordi ipsorum librorum distinctionem ponere hoc modo.’Google Scholar

17 The Index librorum has also been handed down separately, for instance, in the fifteenth-century MS 1264 (S.8.22) of the Bibl. Angelica in Rome (see H. Narducci, Catalogus codicum manuscriptorum praeter graecos et orientales in Bibliotheca Angelica olim coenobii Sancti Augustini de Urbe [Rome 1892] 531f.; Perini, Bibliographia [n. 1. supra], 1.204).Google Scholar

18 PL 32.655. Because of a different division into chapters, chapter 63 in PL corresponds to chapter 89 in the edition of the Retractationes by P. Knöll in the Vienna corpus (CSEL 36.202).Google Scholar

19 The treatise De duodecim abusivis saeculi, written in Ireland about the middle of the seventh century, was current under the names of St. Cyprian, St. Augustine, and St. Patrick respectively. Editions: PL 4.947–60; 40.1079–88; CSEL 3.3.152–73; S. Hellmann, Pseudo-Cyprianus de XII abusivis saeculi (good critical edition), TU 34.1 (1909) 32–60. See also Schanz, M. and Hosius, C., Geschichte der römischen Literatur 4.2 (Munich 1920) 531; Manitius, M., Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters 1 (Munich 1911) 107f.; 2 (1923) 796; Kenney, J. F., The Sources for the Early History of Ireland 1 (New York 1929) Nr. 109; Dekkers, E., Clavis Patrum Latinorum Nr. 1106. The treatise also enjoyed two early printings: the first in 1475 by Georg Husner in Strasburg, the second about 1483 in the printing shop of the Augustinian Friars in Nuremberg (see Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke 3 [Leipzig 1928] 2933 and 2934; see also R. Proctor, An Index to the Early Printed Books in the British Museum [London 1898; rpt. 1960] Nr. 2222, who mistakenly attributes the Nuremberg edition to the Dominican Friars [p. 145]). On the printing shop in the Augustinian monastery of Nuremberg, see Geldner, F., Die deutschen Inkunabel-Drucker (2 vols.; Stuttgart 1968–70) 1.172f.Google Scholar

20 See, for instance, ed. Brix. 2.1096. After giving the explicit of Augustine's Enchiridion: ‘… de fide, spe et caritate conscripsi,’ he adds: ‘In nonnullis vero originalibus finitur sic: Lege, tene, impleque opere, ut legendo simulque orando ad sanctae lectionis intelligentiam merearis pervenire semper inquirens semperque cognoscens.’Google Scholar

21 As late as 1396 Coluccio Salutati had Jean de Montreuil search for this work in France: ‘Nunc vide quid cupiam. fecit Augustinus septem, ni fallor, De musica libros, quibus Latium caret. spero quod istic sint in aliqua libraria. fac, precor, librum diligenter inquirere et Bonaccursus meus illum exemplari faciet’ (Epistolario di Coluccio Salutati, ed. Novati, F. [4 vols.; Rome 1891–1911] 3.146). The search was apparently unsuccessful. For, on April 4, 1401, Salutati turned to Archbishop Thomas Arundel (Fitzalan) of Canterbury with the same request: ‘Ceterum te oro, ut libros Musice sacri doctoris Aurelii Augustini, si modus est, habeam’ (ibid. 3.501).Google Scholar

22 Ed. Brix. 2.1096: ‘… in Episcopatu Bononiensi argenteis et aureis litteris scriptum repperi.’Google Scholar

23 Le scoperte dei codici latini e greci ne’ secoli XIV e XV: Nuove ricerche (Florence 1914) 163f.Google Scholar

24 See Bardenhewer, O., Geschichte der altkirchlichen Literatur 4 (Freiburg i. B. 1924) 454f.Google Scholar

25 See the note of the Maurists preceding their edition of the Breviculus collationis: ‘Breviculus collationis cum Donatistis recognitus est denuo ad veteres editiones, destituentibus nos hic codicibus manuscriptis’ (repr. by Migne, PL 43.613); moreover, M. Petschenig's edition of the Breviculus collationis and Contra Gaudentium in CSEL 53, Praefatio pp. vii and xi. See also Schanz and Hosius, Geschichte (n. 19 supra) 4.2.431 and 432 respectively; G. Pozzi, ‘Roberto de’ Bardi e S. Agostino,’ Italia Medioevale e Umanistica 1 (1958) 150f.Google Scholar

26 Jordani de Saxonia Ordinis Eremitarum S. Augustini Liber Vitasfratrum 2.22 (edd. R. Arbesmann and W. Hümpfner [New York 1943] 239).Google Scholar

27 Defensorium ordinis fratrum heremitarum sancti Augustini responsiuum ad maledicta canonicorum assertorum regularium congregationis Frisonariae (Rome 1481) fol. 109r: ‘… excellentissimum opus utputa milleloquium veritatis Augustini hic [Augustinus de Ancona] incepit, morte tamen preventus a preclarissimo doctore fratre Bartholomeo de Urbino fuit consummatum.’Google Scholar

28 Chronica Ordinis Fratrum Eremitarum Sancti Augustini (Rome 1581) fol. 47r: ‘[Augustinus de Ancona] volumen insigne ex scriptis S. Patris Augustini incepit, quod Milleloquium praenotavit: sed morte praeventus imperfectum reliquit, quod postea Bartholomaeus de Urbino theologus perfecit.’Google Scholar

29 Virorum illustrium ex Ordine Eremitarum D. Augustini elogia (Antwerp 1636) 139: ‘Milleloquium, insigne ex scriptis D. Augustini volumen idem [Augustinus de Ancona] inchoavit, sed mors interveniens scribentem interturbavit. Bartholomaeus deinde Urbinatium Episcopus et ipse Augustinianus perfecit, quare et huius nomen praefert.’Google Scholar

30 Bibliotheca Augustiniana historica, critica et chronologica (Ingolstadt and Augsburg 1768) 112: ‘Incepit [Augustinus de Ancona] etiam volumen insigne ex scriptis S. P. Augustini, quod Milleloquium praenotavit, sed morte praeventus imperfectum reliquit, quod postea Bartholomaeus Urbinas perfecit….’Google Scholar

31 Bibliotheca universalis seu Catalogus omnium scriptorum locupletissimus (Zürich 1545) fol. 102r: ‘Hic [Augustinus de Ancora] volumen insigne ex scriptis divi patris Augustini incoepit, quod Milleloquium praenotavit, sed morte praeventus imperfectum reliquit, quod postea Bartholomaeus Urbinas eiusdem ordinis perfecit.’Google Scholar

32 Bibliotheca latina mediae et infimae aetatis cum supplementis Christiani Schoettgenii (6 vols.; Florence 1858–59) 1.169: ‘Eius [Bartholomaei Urbinatis] Milleloquium Augustini ad Clementem VI Papam sive Commentarii in Vetus et Novum Testamentum ex S. Augustini operibus concinnati, quos Augustinus Triumphus affectos reliquerat et Bartholomaeus ad umbilicum perduxit.’Google Scholar

33 Dissertatio historica de ducentis celeberrimis Augustinianis scriptoribus (Rome 1704) 92f.Google Scholar

34 See, for instance, F. Ueberwegs Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophie. II. Die mittlere oder die patristische und scholastische Zeit (10th ed. by Baumgartner, M.; Berlin 1915) 524; DHGE 6 (1932) 1034; DThC 2.1 (1932) 437; Enciclopedia Cattolica 2 (1949) 930 and 12 (1954) 547; LThK2 2 (1958) 14; New Catholic Encyclopedia 1 (1967) 1058.Google Scholar

35 Bibliographia (n. 1 supra) 4.25.Google Scholar

36 Fol. 176v: ‘In 6. libro [Confessionum] primum dictum est quod deum ….’Google Scholar

37 See fol. 1r and fol. 178r where a ten-line and an eight-line space respectively have been left blank for ornamental initials.Google Scholar

38 See, for instance, folios 60v, 63r, 65r, 140r, 157r, 165r, and 172r where the usual five-line space has been left blank for ornamental initials.Google Scholar

39 See the list of manuscripts in libraries of central Europe, compiled by Zumkeller, ‘Manuskripte’ (n. 3 supra) 274. Moreover, in 1581, Augustine Fivizzani, then vicarius of the Augustinian Order, planned to have the treatise printed. On this, see the entry in the registers of Fivizzani (Rome, Arch. gen. O.S.A., Cc 21, fol. 44): ‘Die 22. [novembris 1581]. — M [agistro] Ambrosio Bononiensi scripsimus, ut quendam librum de Spiritu Sancto B. Augustini Triumphi Anconitani mitteret, quem edendum curabimus,’ quoted from [E. Esteban], ‘Excerpta e Regesto Fratris Augustini Fivizanii, Vicarii Generalis Ordinis (1581–1582),’ Analecta Augustiniana 10 (1923–24) 261. Fivizzani's plan never materialized.Google Scholar

40 The treatise begins (fol. 178r) immediately with the text: ‘Domine Jesu Christe, qui dixisti apostolis tuis: petite et accipietis …’Google Scholar

41 ‘Explicit tractatus de amore Spiritus Sancti per quinquaginta theoremata distinctus, editus a fratre Augustino de Ancona fratrum heremitarum Sancti Augustini.’Google Scholar

42 The genuine Augustinian writings are: De civitate Dei (fol. 1r–fol.60r); De Genesi contra Manichaeos (fol. 60v – fol. 63r); Contra epistulam Manichaei quam vocant fundamenti (fol. 63r – fol. 64v); De trinitate (fol. 65r – fol. 139v); De doctrina Christiana (fol. 140r – fol. 156v); De diversis quaestionibus LXXXIII liber unus (fol. 165r – fol. 171r); Confessiones (fol. 172r – fol. 176v). The pseudo-Augustinian work is the treatise De mirabilibus sacrae scripturae (fol. 157r – fol. 164r). On this pseudo-Augustinian work, see Kenney, Sources (n. 19 supra) Nr. 104; Dekker, Clavis (n. 19 supra) Nr. 1123. Here we can again observe Bartholomew's critical sense. In his Index librorum (ed. Brix. 1100), he explicitly states that this work is not mentioned by Augustine in the Retractationes, and that he had found two different incipits in the manuscripts consulted by him.Google Scholar

43 Catalogus codicum latinorum Bibliothecae Mediceae Laurentianae 1 (Florence 1774) 56.Google Scholar

44 On the Chronica of Pamphilus, see n. 28 supra. We consulted Cave's work in the folio edition in two volumes by the Clarendon Press, Oxford 1740–43. The passage referred to is 2 (an. 1290) 333.Google Scholar

45 Compare Perini, Bibliographia (n. 1 supra) 4.25 with Bandini, Catalogus (n. 43 supra) 1.56.Google Scholar

46 ‘De Augustini de Ancona O.E.S.A. (†1328) vita et operibus,’ Analecta Augustiniana 22 (1951–52) 7–56, 148–262.Google Scholar

47 See Ministeri's evaluation of Jordan's statement, ibid. 223.Google Scholar

48 Ibid. 223f.Google Scholar

49 Ibid. 223.Google Scholar

50 ‘The Verse Embellishments’ (n. 2 supra) 563f.Google Scholar

51 ‘Bartholomaeus of Urbino’ (n. 1 supra) 34–38.Google Scholar

52 Bartholemew is rather expansive in acknowledging his indebtedness to these authors. He mentions four. Fitzpatrick ([n. 1 supra] 35) quite plausibly suggests that the work of the first — a ‘sanctorum Bernardi compilator atque Gregorii’ — may well be identical with the Flores Bernardi et Gregorii in cod. Parisinus lat. 2576 of the Bibliothèque Nationale. The second author is the ‘Archidiaconus Aretinae Ecclesiae, qui de dictis huius doctoris eximii [S. Augustini] omnes fere epistolas Pauli exponendo glossavit.’ An archdeacon of the church of Arezzo as the author of such an expository gloss is unknown. However, Fitzpatrick (ibid. 35f.) calls attention to Archdeacon Florus of Lyon († about 860) who is credited with an exegetical work of this kind. How the names of the two churches became confused in the text tradition is obscure. We are on more solid ground with the third author, a certain ‘Eugenius abbas, qui de libris eiusdem [S. Augustini] volumen sub vocabulo Florum paradisi transcripsit.’ There seems to be hardly any doubt that the author whom Bartholomew had in mind is Eugippius, the disciple and biographer of the great Danubian apostle St. Severinus and author of Excerpta ex operibus S. Augustini, an extensive collection of passages selected from various works of St. Augustine (ed. Knöll; CSEL 9.1). Palaeographically, the corruption of the author's name in the dedicatory letter by altering it to ‘Eugenius’ can easily be explained. The spelling of the name varies greatly in the manuscripts which have handed down the works of this author, being now Eugippius or Eugipius, now Eugeppius or Eugepius. An illuminating and most interesting variant spelling — Eugepnius — is to be found in cod. Paris. lat. 2119 (an. 1357) of the Bibl. Nat., fol. 1r (see Fitzpatrick, ibid. 44 n. 15). If a scribe copied from a manuscript which had the spelling ‘Eugepius,’ he might well have written ‘Eugenius’ by trivializing the uncommon name. The frequently used title Flores paradisi is derived from a passage in the dedicatory letter preceding the Excerpta proper: since many do not have at their disposal the numerous volumes of the great doctor of the Church, Eugippius offers them, as it were, a bouquet culled ‘from a vast meadow strewn with heavenly flowers’ (CSEL 9.1.2.: ‘quaedam velut ex ingenti prato floribus asperso caelestibus’). The fourth and, no doubt, most influential author is a contemporary of Bartholomew's, his friend and colleague at the University of Bologna, Giovanni d'Andrea. It is certainly significant that the Hieronymianus of the famous canonist and Bartholomew's Milleloquium S. Augustini reveal striking structural similarities. Thus, like Bartholomew's prologue to the Milleloquium, the third part of the Hieronymianus consists of testimonia in praise of the author; and, like Bartholomew's Index librorum, the fourth part of the Hieronymianus is a recension of the author's literary output, giving the incipits and explicits of the works and adding useful comments (on the structure of the Hieronymianus, see Sabbadini, Le scoperte [n. 23 supra] 160 and n. 20).Google Scholar

53 Catalogus codicum (n. 43 supra) 1.56f.Google Scholar

54 See the list of the writings n. 42 supra.Google Scholar

55 Ep. 1.2.69f.Google Scholar

56 Aristotle, De anima 421A (according to Aristotle, men of hard flesh are poorly, men of soft flesh well, endowed with intelligence).Google Scholar

57 De memoria et reminiscentia 450A–B; cf. ibid. 453B.Google Scholar

58 Cf. Verg., Aen. 6.852f.Google Scholar

59 Cf. Liv. 25.24.11; 25.7.Google Scholar

60 The pertinent text De civ. Dei 1.8 reads: ‘Interest autem plurimum.’Google Scholar

61 Cf. Aristotle, Politica 7.3.5: ‘Hence if there is another person who is our superior both in virtue and in capacity of performing the highest functions, him it is noble to follow and him it is just to obey.’Google Scholar

62 architectore scripsimus architetore cod. Besides the usual form architectus, -i, and the rarer form architecton, -onis, there is also found the form architector, -oris (see ThLL 2.464; Forcellini, Totius Latinitatis Lexicon [6 vols.; Prato 1858–75] 1.366f.). Aristotle (Polit. 7.3.6) uses the term αϱχιτέκτων in describing the master-craftsman who directs political action by his thoughts.Google Scholar

63 regulatore scripsimus r'gla'tiue (regulative?) cod. On regulator as equivalent to rector, see DuCange 7.100 s.v. regulare.Google Scholar

64 sicut cod.Google Scholar

65 et interrogant] est interrogatum cod.Google Scholar

66 esse] omnes cod.Google Scholar

67 sicut cod.Google Scholar

68 instantia] ista cod.Google Scholar

69 firmamur cod.Google Scholar

70 distidetur cod.Google Scholar

71 animi cod.Google Scholar

72 Fol. 67rb.Google Scholar

73 The same holds true concerning Bandini's description of the MS. See his Catalogus (n. 43 supra) 1.35: ‘Notandum heic est, Flores ex Libro III. decerptos, quum suo loco, nempe pag. 8.b. praetermissi a scriptore fuissent, in medio Libri XV. pagina nimirum 54.b. fuisse postea ab eodem exaratos.’Google Scholar

74 See the list of the writings n. 42 supra.Google Scholar

75 See nn. 28 and 44 supra.Google Scholar

76 See n. 41 supra.Google Scholar

77 Fol. 67rb.Google Scholar

78 See nn. 56 and 57 supra.Google Scholar

79 See nn. 61 and 62 supra.Google Scholar

80 On the Aristotle commentaries by Augustine of Ancona, see Lohr, C. H., ‘Medieval Latin Aristotle Commentaries: Authors A–F,’ Traditio 23 (1967) 372–74, and the literature he cites.Google Scholar

81 Cod. Laurent. Plut. 13.15, fol. 1r.Google Scholar

82 Ibid. fol. 65r.Google Scholar

83 Ibid. fol. 157r.Google Scholar