The Lost Patriarchs Project: Recovering the Greek Fathers in the Medieval Latin Tradition

FAIN: FEL-267928-20

Scott Gordon Bruce
Fordham University (Bronx, NY 10458-9993)

Research and writing leading to a reference work on the Latin transmission and reception of Greek patristic writers in medieval western Europe.

The Lost Patriarchs Project investigates the impact and influence of the Greek Christian patristic tradition in medieval western Europe through a study of the surviving evidence (manuscripts, citations, and monastic library catalogue entries) for the knowledge of Greek works in Latin translation. The goal of the project is the production of an instrument of reference that will further the study of the transmission and reception of Greek patristics in the European Middle Ages.

Associated Products

“Veterum Vestigia Patrum: The Greek Patriarchs in the Manuscript Culture of Early Medieval Europe,” (Article)
Title: “Veterum Vestigia Patrum: The Greek Patriarchs in the Manuscript Culture of Early Medieval Europe,”
Author: Scott G. Bruce
Abstract: This article draws attention to the availability of Latin translations of Greek patristic literature in western reading communities before the year 800 through a survey of the contents of hundreds of surviving manuscripts from the Merovingian and Carolingian periods. An examination of the presence of the translated works of eastern Church fathers in the eighth-century florilegium known as The Book of Sparks (Liber scintillarum) and monastic library catalogues from the early ninth century corroborates the impression left by the manuscript evidence. Taken together, these sources allow us to gauge the popularity of particular eastern authors among readers in early medieval Europe and to weigh the influence and importance of Greek patristics in the western monastic tradition.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0012580621994704
Primary URL Description: Journal website.
Access Model: Open access
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: The Downside Review
Publisher: Sage Journals

“Ex sanctorum patrum certissimis testimoniis: Reading the Greek Fathers in Latin in Early Medieval Monasteries,” (Article)
Title: “Ex sanctorum patrum certissimis testimoniis: Reading the Greek Fathers in Latin in Early Medieval Monasteries,”
Author: Benjamin Bertrand
Author: Scott G. Bruce
Abstract: Monastic reading communities in early medieval Europe had a voracious appetite for the works of the Greek church fathers in Latin translation. This article examines the evidence for the availability of translated Greek patristics in western abbeys from the fifth to the ninth centuries through a survey of surviving manuscripts and monastic library inventories. While there was not yet a canon of officially recognized ‘fathers of the eastern church’ in early medieval Europe, this article shows how western monks favored five of the six Greek patriarchs singled out as authoritative in the sixth–century Decretum Gelasianum. In terms of genre, they strongly preferred the homiletical writings of eastern Christian authors over their polemical works, because sermons and biblical homilies had greater utility as tools for teaching and preaching. Lastly, this article highlights the fact that the most widely copied Greek church father in early medieval Europe was also the most notorious and suspect thinker in the eastern church: Origen of Alexandria, whose skill as an author of biblical commentaries outweighed his notoriety as a condemned theologian in the eyes of western monks.
Year: 2022
Primary URL: http://www.brepols.net/Pages/BrowseBySeries.aspx?TreeSeries=JMMS
Primary URL Description: Journal homepage
Access Model: Subscription only
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Journal of Medieval Monastic Studies
Publisher: Brepols

---