Xavier LEQUEUX. La Passion grecque abrégée de sainte Cyprille martyre à Cyrène en Libye (BHG 2093).
The new text edited on the basis of MSS Andros, Monastery τῆς Ζωοδόχου Πηγῆς 65 (15th cent., f. 195-198v) and Vaticanus graecus 2014 (12th cent., f. 111-113) relates the history of a woman of Cyrene who was one of the entourage of Bishop Theodore at the time of Diocletian. After the martyrdom of the bishop the pagans tried to force the beautiful Cyprilla to sacrifice to the idols. She avoided this by placing her hand on the burning-hot altar. Suspended from a pole she was flayed alive and died. Milk seeped from her breasts and was mixed with the blood dripping from her wounds to the point that they soaked through the shroud enveloping her mortal remains. The martyr was buried in a grotto and a cross was carved on the rock in the hollow of which the sick drew dew with curative properties. Cyprilla is venerated at Byzantium either on 4 July or the following day.
Sergey A. IVANOV. The Right Hand Fetid, the Left Unclean. An Unknown Byzantine Spiritually Beneficial Tale.
Le texte original grec de cette historiette vit le jour dans un milieu chrétien à Antioche sous la domination arabe, alors que le souvenir du patriarche Théodoret (VIIIe s.) était encore vivace. L’intrigue, byzantine dans ses grandes lignes, reflète aussi l’influence de la tradition musulmane, péjorative à l’égard de la main gauche.
Francesco MARZELLA. Al diavolo la tassa! Un episodio interpolato della Vita S. Aedwardi regis et confessoris di Aelredo di Rievaulx.
Only part of the manuscript tradition of Aelred of Rievaulx’s Vita sancti Aedwardi regis et confessoris contains an episode concerning the abolition of a tax known as danegeld. According to the account Edward reintroduced this tax, once paid to prevent Danish invasions, only at the suggestion of his counsellors and then decided to abolish it definitively after seeing the devil in the shape of a monkey on the pile of money collected. In this paper the story is analyzed in order to demonstrate that it is an episode interpolated into the Vita before the end of the 12th century. The study is followed by a critical edition of the Latin text.
Cécile LANÉRY. Hagiographie et prédication: le légendier Charleville-Mézières, BM 177.
The Latin MS. Charleville-Mézières BM 177 is an abridged legendary of Metz which originates from Saint-Arnoul, where it was copied in about 1300. It was designed to serve as a manual for hagiographic preaching: the excerpts taken from the Legenda aurea are accompanied by many other abridged Vitae, in part taken from Jean de Mailly and in part directly compiled from the Vitae of local saints. The legendary is remarkable in that it has two unedited Vitae of the bishops Clou and Arnoul of Metz and also because of a strange collection of hagiographic tales destined to be used and elaborated upon by the preacher.
François DOLBEAU. Prologue inédit d’un homéliaire-légendier des anciens Pays-Bas.
Codex 1380 of the Jagellonian Library at Cracow is a hagiographic and homiletic lectionary of the 14th century. It is peculiar in that it is preceded by a prologue which uses that of a martyr’s Passion (BHL 400 or 1787) as do two legendaries of the southern Low Countries, those of Saint-Trond and Rouge-Cloître. Its sanctorale makes it possible to state that it originated in the diocese of Utrecht, probably at Deventer. An elaborate table which involves also another volume reestablishes the order of the calendar which was jumbled by the frequent recourse to variant examplars.
Bernard JOASSART. Correspondance des bollandistes A. Tinnebroeck, É. Carpentier, H. Matagne, R. De Buck, C. De Smedt, G. Van Hooff, J. Van den Gheyn et H. Delehaye avec Jean Gagarin et Jean Martynov.
Jean-Marie SANSTERRE. Signes de sainteté et vecteurs de virtus dans les miracles posthumes du carme Albert de Trapani relatés aux XIVe-XVe siècles.
Carmelite Albert of Trapani’s posthumous miracles are examined here on the basis of four recensions of his Vita, written between 1385 and the end of the 15th cent. Images of Bl. Albert are often mentioned as signs of his sanctity, as well as contributing to build that sanctity. Considered as carriers of the saint’s virtus, even though they may be located far away from his body (divided between Messina and Trapani), their importance remains nonethess secondary respect to the widely diffused relics and the practice of drinking some water which has been in contact with them.
Bulletin des publications hagiographiques.