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Liber epistolarum sancti Patricii episcopi. The Book of the Letters of Saint Patrick the Bishop ed. and trans. by David R. Howlett

1996; Scriptoriun Press; Volume: 6; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/art.1996.0012

1934-1539

Marina Smyth,

Historical Studies of British Isles

reviews77 david r. howlett, ed. and trans., Liber epistohrum sancii Patricii episcopi. The Book ofthe Letters ofSaint Patrick the Bishop, Celtic Studies Series. Dublin, Four Courts Press, 1994. isbn: 1-85182-136-8. $39.50. The author wishes to show that Saint Patrick, far from being the rusticissimus he claims to be, was not only so steeped in the text ofthe Latin Bible that he appropriated its characteristic style, butwas also a skilled master in an intricate form ofcomposition delighting in countless arithmetical subtleties. Some general questions immediately come to mind. Which Latin Bible? The illustrations of'biblical style' provided in this book are all drawn from the Vulgate, a text which was by no means universally used at that time, and was not the only version cited by Patrick (see Ludwig Bieler, ed., Libri epistolarum sancii Patricii episcopi, Introduction, Textand Commentary, Clavis Patricii II, Royal Irish Academy Dictionary of Medieval Latin from Celtic Sources: Ancillary Publications IV; Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, 1993; pp. 34-35). And besides, are not various authors and various styles represented in the Bible? The main symptoms of'biblical style' identified here appear to be parallel and chiastic structures, with symmetrical or antisymmetrical correspondences between phrases and/or related words. These structures are revealed by providing the text ofthe EpistoL· ad milites Corotici and ofthe Confessio as edited by Ludwig Bieler (except for 57 changes explicitly identified on pp. 15-16) with the composite punctuation and capitalization ofall the manuscripts. An apparatuswould help the reader make judgments on this practice, as well as some discussion of the various dates and origins of these manuscripts—Bieler based his edition on seven manuscripts originating from the British Isles and Northern France and ranging from 807 to the end of the 12th century, with a later copy of the Book ofArmagh text dating from the 17th century. The format used here assumes that a new clause starts on a new line. In cases where the manuscripts are not helpful with punctuation or capitalizaton, the identification ofclauses appears to rely heavily on patterns which the author has discerned within the text. The texts are thus said to be arrangedper coL· et commata 'by clauses and phrases' (p. 12), presumably an allusion to Jerome's Prologue to the Vulgate text of Isaiah (where the practice is presented as an aid to unlearned readers). An educated Romanwould have been exposed to the concepts of cola and commata in the use oflanguage, as can be seen, for instance, from the study by Thomas N. Habinek: The Colometry ofLatin Prose, University of California Publications: Classical Studies, vol. 25; Berkeley, Univ. ofCalifornia Press, 1986. Much effort is expended in the presentation (by means of a complex system of corresponding letters, numbers, underlines, dots, etc.) and in the subsequent analysis for the purpose ofbringing to light the verbal echoes between various elements within the texts. There is also much emphasis on the perceived importance ofnumbers and ratios in mese compositions.The most casual glance through theLexikon derMitteblterlichen Zahlenbedeutungen by Heinz Meyer and Rudolf Suntrup (Munich, Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 1987) will convince the reader of the symbolic significance of numbers in ancient and medieval times. But apart from some fairly obvious cases, such as the arthuriana 6.3 (1996) reviews78 occasional play on the number three (with its trinitarian implications), there is little evidence for such concern with numerology in the Patrician texts. It is possible that Patrick counted words, syllables, and letters to balance symmetrical or antisymmetrical clauses or phrases; if so, he would probably have been playing into the hands of those condescending rhetorici of Confessio 13: did not (Pseudo-) Cicero affirm in Rhetorica ad Herennium iv.27 that it would be 'childish' {puerile) actually to count syllables in order to achieve a balanced prose (Rhetorica adHerennium : incerti auctoris libri iv de arte dicendi = Rhetorik adHerennius : eines Unbekannten 4 Bucher überRedekunst, ed. Friedhelm L. Muller, Berichte aus den Literaturwissenschaft; Aachen, Shaker, 1994; p. 142). It cannot be said, however, that Patrick paid attention to the proportions of the golden section. Apart from the lack of evidence for any general facility with more complex arithmetical operations in late antiquity, I know of no evidence that...